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McGilvary Ecumenical Lectures

EDUCATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Rev. Dr KWOK Nai Wang

MAIN ARGUMENTS

School education contributes little to the overall social development in Asia although it
raises the competitiveness of hundreds and thousands of youngsters. The major reason
is that education is pretty much controlled by government which in turn is deeply
influenced by big business. Both governments and the business community expect
schools to produce the kind of young people they want, namely hard-working
technocrats who should be creative, but at the same time obedient to those in power.

However education should not be a tool to those in authority. It should be for the
development of persons. It should help individuals to grow and to live a dignified and full
life. Education should not be about books and skills, tests and examinations; it should
be about providing opportunities for youngsters to discover their own uniqueness;
opportunities to explore the purpose and deeper meaning of their life so that eventually
their potentials will be more fully realized.

Education can contribute to genuine social reform by helping people to expand their
horizons and become more caring people. Only caring persons can bring about a caring
community which should be the end result for all social change.

But first, education must be free from the bondage of government and the business
community. Autonomy is the key to education reform. Instead of relying on financial
support by government and big business, for example, tertiary education institutions
should look for support from alumni and community. Community participation and
support are vital. These will only come if academics decide to be also practioners and
get themselves involved in community struggles.

Educators should never underestimate the blocks created by parents. In engaging in

education reform, parents must be fully involved so that they can be turned from a
liability to an asset.

Increasingly, many Asian nations want to compete with the Western nations and
therefore spare no efforts to develop tertiary education. Sadly, they tend to overlook the
foundational stage of education. Pre-school education as well as primary school
education are keys to personal development!

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In final analysis, teachers hold the key to education reform. Instead of devoting all
energy in teaching subject matter, teachers should spend more time and energy to care
and to nurture their students so that not only do their students have an open mind, but
more importantly a big heart. Instead of teaching their students to be successful
professionals, teachers should develop their students to be responsible citizens. This is
no small task to teachers. Teachers at all levels should take their work most seriously
and be ready to make a personal sacrifice. For teaching is not just a job or a career, but
it is a vocation.

Education, especially school education, should devote its full attention to the
development of persons. It is only in such a way that genuine social change will come
about and that humanness be preserved or even enhanced.

FULL TEXT

I. Do Existing Education Patterns Enhance Overall Development In Asia?

It is generally believed that in order to get rid of poverty in Asia, governments and the
general public must invest more in education, especially in tertiary education. Education
is the answer for the overall development in Asia.

But as we look deeper, we might come up with a different conclusion. As the people in
Asia, on the whole become more educated, many more people become poorer. At the
same time, the rich and poor gap becomes even more widened.

In Hong Kong, for instance, in 1960, there was only one university. The intake of first
degree students was 350. In 2000, there were eight universities. There were 145,000
admissions to the first degree courses. This represents a rise of more than 40 times, a
remarkable achievement indeed.

However, according to the gini-coefficient, an index used to measure the gap between
the rich and the poor, it was less than 3.5 in 1960. It jumped to close to 5.3 in 2000. In
fact, the rich-poor gap has now almost reach a boiling point.

After Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, the new Special Administrative Region
Government has vowed to put education in the top priority. To combat the
unemployment problem resulting from the Asian economic meltdown in 1997-1998, the
government has spent billions of Hong Kong dollars on retraining, on improving the
English standards of secondary students (a measure to improve on Hong Kong’s
competitiveness) and so on. All this did not retard the rapid increase of the rich-poor
gap. As a matter of fact, of the 10% lowest paid workers in Hong Kong, each received
HK$4,000 (or US$500) per month in 1997. It became HK$3,300 (US$420), a drop of
30%! While for the 10% highest salaried people in Hong Kong, in 1997, each received a
monthly pay cheque of HK$63,000 (US$8,000). In 2000, this was increased to
HK$70,000 (US$8,750), or an increase of ten percent.

Why is education and social development not in a direct proportionate relationship? Is

there something drastically wrong with education?

There is no doubt that education can help to raise the competitive power of the few who

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have the opportunity for higher education. By and large university graduates are
guaranteed better jobs and better pay. I served in a parish in a slum area in Hong Kong
for 12 years in the 1960s and 1970s. I have personally witnessed how several of my
parishioners escaped poverty after they struggled hard to gain a university degree.

Education in Asia, especially its higher education, is greatly influenced by the West. Most
of the Asian educators got their PhDs from universities in North America and Europe (a
few from Australia and New Zealand). It cannot therefore escape from the impact of the
western concept of education.

Very generally, education in the West emphasizes on the imparting of knowledge and
skills. It is based on the assumption that power and might can ultimately solve all
problems. The West also champions individual rights and freedoms. Hence personal
benefits are much more important than corporate responsibility and human relationship
which have been treasured in Asia for thousands of years. No wonder many Asians now
consider education is a tool to help them or their children to climb the social ladder.

Education in Asia is largely controlled by the government authorities. They pay (though
with money from tax payers) and they set all policies and guide lines.

Since 1978, nine years of compulsory and free education as well as four years of
subsidized education were introduced in Hong Kong. In 1990-1991, the total bill came
up to be HK$3.496 billion (or US$440 million). It jumped to HK$11.914 billion (or
US$1.5 billion) in 2000-2001.

It is even more expensive in tertiary education. Nowadays, the average cost per
university student is HK$200,000 (US$25,000) per annum. More than 80% of this
amount is funded by the government. Because of the huge amounts involved, over the
years government authorities have introduced more and more stringent monitoring and
accountability measures. Naturally all this dampens creativity.

Furthermore, when education is so tightly controlled by the government bureaucracies,

it becomes the most important tool for the ruling class.

In Hong Kong, schools (from kindergartens to secondary schools) pay a great deal of
attention to students’ discipline (headmasters and headmistresses like to call it school
discipline). Students are taught first of all to be obedient to authorities. They should
never challenge decisions made by those in authority. Consequently in the past 160
years, those in power, especially those in government authorities, whatever their
governance and performance, were never seriously questioned. That explains how the
archaic political system is able to be maintained up to today.

Then, students are taught to study diligently. This is the only way to pass examinations
with good grades. With good grades, they can go to any university, taking whichever
course of their choice. Later, when they graduate with high honours, they are
guaranteed well-paid jobs. If they continue to work hard, they can enjoy promising
promotion prospects.

With such emphasis on school discipline, forcing students to study hard and behave
properly, students’ independent thinking and creativity are suppressed.

Incidentally, secondary school teachers complain a great deal in recent years that their

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students’ academic standards are down and that they have to spend a good bit of their
time to deal with serious behaviour problems of their students. Perhaps this is an
indictment of the existing school education in Hong Kong; the more oppressive to the
students, the more resistance from the students!

Those in authorities use education as a major stabilising force in society. They expect
schools at all levels to help their society to produce useful leaders who in turn, will help
them to maintain the status quo. Hence young people in Hong Kong are taught to be
selfish, constantly thinking of how to enhance their advancement prospects. There is
little room for them to consider wider concerns, such as how to better serve those in
need; how to improve on the welfare of the community as a whole and no room to
explore questions such as what life is all about?

Asia in general is dominated by big business which in turn dominates the direction and
content of education. It is often considered that in Asia, governments primarily serve
business people. So is education.

In Hong Kong, for instance, over the past 160 years, the direction and content of
education were dictated by market needs. For example, in the 1970s, universities were
preoccupied with assisting the business community in the production of the
professionals they needed, such as lawyers, architects, engineers and doctors. In the
1980s, when Hong Kong’s economy began to evolve from industrial and tourist to
commercial and banking, universities concentrate to develop its business management
courses. In the 1990s, it was all sorts of computer studies and information technologies.
As a result of this practical orientation in universities, it ignores content-wise the
teaching of fine arts and courses related to humanities.

This utilitarian thinking in education is also greatly affecting high school education in
Hong Kong. Despite financial resources are always difficult to come by, because the
authorities want the secondary school students to master the computer well before they
graduate, abundance of computers are provided to every secondary school. Some of the
principals told me that their school cannot use all the computers they were given, so
some of the computers were put in the school corridors. The big push in computer use in
schools is an important contributor towards a decline of language standards in both
English and Chinese in Hong Kong.

In most Asian nations, the education system is definitely dominated by the business
mindset. One of the major considerations of the business community is profits. Business
people are obsessed with their own interests, so much so that they often ignore the
public interests or worse still many a time they will seek for their own interests at the
expense of the public interests. In Hong Kong most of the business people are looking at
short-term investments only. They expect to have their total investment in full return
within five years. Education cannot bring about tangible profits/results. It is against all
education principles for educators to seek a fast return. There is a Chinese saying, "It
takes ten years to grow a tree, but a hundred years to educate a person."

Like the business tycoons, education authorities all over Asia are obsessed with
numbers. In Hong Kong, the Chief Executive wants to catch up on Singapore in tertiary
education. So he and his education chief decreed recently that in two decades, the
number of youngsters who can receive tertiary education should be increased from the
existing 20% to 60%. In order to have this quick fix materialized, the education
authorities said that the government will spend in the next 10 years HK$1.9 billion
(US$240 million) to request all 8 universities to develop "associate degrees" (a two-year

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program). Many academics have raised serious doubts about this approach – basically it
is a cheap way to help 60% of the youngsters to get a degree of some sort by the year
2020. Necessarily, associate degrees rely almost exclusively on course work which in
turn rely heavily on part-time teachers. Course work is at best a small part of education.
Education depends heavily on the interaction of students with teachers. At the present
moment, because of the ever increasing workload of teachers, they are spending less
and less time with their students. By concentrating so much on the increase of numbers
– and youngsters are human beings, not numbers – the quality of education definitely
suffers. It is only a myth that with quantity, quality will come.

Education authorities somehow are intrigued by the way businesses are run. So the
education authorities in Hong Kong are now demanding all schools observe strictly the
cost-effectiveness principle. Schools are now asked to increase their values by making
sure that the grades of their students improve year after year. It is pathetic that
education is reduced to this kind of measurement.

The overall social development in Asia is often controlled by the people who hold the
economic as well as political power. These powerful people consider social development
is equivalent to economic development. Furthermore, they tend to reduce economic
development as simply economic growth.

In China, for example, throughout the early 1990s, the GDP growth was in double digits.
Even after the Asian economic downturn, it still maintains 7% or 8% per annum. But the
gap between the rich in the big cities along the coastline and the poor in the out-West
rural areas is phenomenal. Abject poverty abounds in some of those rural areas. This is
one good example showing there is no genuine economic development if the issue of
distribution of resources and wealth was ignored.

Similarly, Japan did extremely well in the 1970s and 1980s on economic growth. Its
government paid some attention regarding the distribution of wealth generated. That
explains why that the poverty problem as well as the rich-poor gap problem were not as
serious as in many other Asian nations. However, Japan has not done enough in its
overall social development in those years. Japan is now facing the longest spell of
economic downturn since the Second World War. It is mainly because of its weak social
fabrics.

On the contrary, in some nations in Northern Europe, Finland, for example, overall social
development is always emphasized. They tend to have much stronger societies.

As the rich and powerful view education as a tool to economic growth only, education
has become a culprit in creating highly unjust societies all over Asia. Unless it is radically
changed, education will continue to be a stumbling block for social change in Asia.

II. Ultimately Education Is For Personal Development

The original meaning and purpose of education is not to serve the interests of
governments nor big businesses. It is not even for social change. Education is for the
development of persons.

People are the most important asset in any society. In fact, societies are constituted by
people. They depend on people to contribute, to keep them running.

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It is often said that whatever the people, whatever the society. In any given society, if
people adopt the "everybody for themselves" mindset, that society will be a rather
closed society.

In an open society, we must have people with open minds. They should care for the
common good more than their self gain. This is what education is all about. Education
helps people to have open minds. It helps people to care not only for themselves, but
also for others as well.

If ultimately, education is for personal development. What then is a person?

Traditionally in China, a person is considered to be wholesome if he/she has high moral

standards, is intellectually capable, has a healthy body, can relate to others and has the
ability to appreciate whatever is beautiful. In ancient China, in order to train such a
person, youngsters were taught six subjects, viz. rituals and manners, music, archery,
horse-riding, ancient books as well as mathematics. In modern China, there were
basically five components in primary and secondary education. These five areas of
education aimed to give each young person a well-balanced education. They included
moral education, intellectual education, physical education, social education and
aesthetic education. Courses were designed to fit into one of these five areas of
education. Thus for example, arithmetic is a part of intellectual education; painting and
music form the core of aesthetic education. But because of the rapid increase of natural
sciences which have to be fitted into the school curriculum, the traditional patterns of
school education in China had to give way.

While the West has concentrated to develop students’ knowledge, rationality as well as
individuality in its education approach, the East has always emphasized on students’
emotions and feelings, intuitive power, human relationships, the importance of the
collective, the family and the clan. It would be ideal to look at these two lists and try our
best to combine them. For in itself, neither list would be able to help educators to
develop people into whole persons.

Asia is generally known as the land of spirits. Traditionally Asians on the whole highly
treasure spirituality. Spirituality cannot be considered as anti-materialism, anti-
secularization or anti-West. It merely affirms that there is yet another dimension other
than the physical dimension of beings. For example, most people enjoy material
comforts. But their willingness and efforts to assist young brothers and sisters to have
enough to eat, warm clothes and a safe shelter certainly will heighten their joy and
satisfaction. To eat is a physical act. It sustains our body. But to enable those who have
no food to have something to eat is a spiritual act. Spirituality enables us to ask deeper
questions about the meaning and purpose of life. A spiritual person is not interested to
seek for material comforts. He/she has a keen sense to detach himself/herself from
positions, status, power, privileges and wealth. There is an old Chinese saying, "When
people have reached that stage of detachment, their character would have been fully
developed." Education must seek to nurture people so that they all become persons with
impeccable character.

In modern times, the world has come to realize that all human beings are priceless and
born with capabilities to develop. Therefore, one of the most important functions of
education is to help students to draw out their own potentials and each one of them
developing into a full human being.

The present pattern of education is going towards the opposite direction. It concentrates

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on filling students with knowledge, oftentimes pseudo-knowledge. It is pseudo because

it is conceptual, quite unrelated to the daily life. It is pseudo because teachers have not
thought through what it is all about. They merely repeat what others have said before.

This kind of knowledge-based education pressurizes students to memorize what has

been taught, and then be able to repeat in tests and examinations: the more accurate
they can repeat, the higher grades they can get. Hence students’ success is mainly
determined by passing examinations with good grades.

This kind of reduction in education certainly will not help in the overall personal
development. With so much time spent in cramming knowledge to students, little or no
time will be given to students to explore and to think. This greatly dampens creativity.
Book-learning and study for tests and examinations also greatly discourage students to
read widely.

Education is for the development of a person, or personal development. "Personal"

implies that people have the qualities such as independence and uniqueness. Education
enables students to learn to be independent, forming their own ideas and judgment,
dare to stand up to say what they think rather than to hide behind the crowd or follow
the authorities and echo whatever these people say.

Traditionally, Asia is extremely authoritarian. The emerging generation is expected to be

obedient to their elders who are the symbols of authority. In some cases, people are
treated by those in authority as their objects of servitude. In other words, those in
authority subconsciously believe that the masses exist primarily to serve their interests
and greed. On the other hand, people want to survive and do well, they have to learn to
kowtow to those in authority. People must do everything possible to please the
authorities, or at least not to do anything to offend the authorities. This greatly distorts
people’s dignity. People will then become less than full human beings.

Today in Asia, a great many young people feel that they are being pressurized in schools
as well as in society. Sooner or later, they might turn from being the oppressed to be
the oppressors. Education must help to break this vicious cycle.

We have to start with school education. Every school should be a fun place for young
people to live and to learn. Everyone in the school, teachers and students alike, should
be respected, free from oppression and be treated as a human being. Schools are places
where young people learn to live a dignified life.

School education should provide opportunities for young people to discover their
uniqueness. In so doing, young people can increase their self-esteem and build a
stronger character, a character which is not only inward-looking, but outward-looking as
well. An outgoing character implies the caring of others. In a society dominated by an
irresponsible culture - that people no longer want to take up the responsibility for others
as well as their own acts - it is vital that in the process of character formation, young
people should be enlightened to be serious about their own role in society and their
share of social responsibility.

Society is constituted by people. Only when people have wholesome characters would
there be a healthy society. Hence the personal development is key to social
development. Overall social development rely not so much on theories, but on people,
not a small group of rich and powerful people, but all people.

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III. Some Suggestions For Education Reform In Asia

Genuine and long-lasting education reforms in Asia have to come from the front- line:
educators and teachers from kindergartens, primary as well as secondary schools, and
especially from colleges and universities. It is because the education authorities from
the government look at issues from their office. Their outlook and value system are
vastly different than the professionals who engage in the day-to-day struggles.

First, Kindergartens.

Society as a whole has paid too little attention to kindergarten education. Parents send
their young ones to kindergarten so that mothers (in Asia, mothers are primary child-
minders) can be free for half-a-day to engage in household chores or take up a part-
time job. In most nations, kindergartens are not subsidized by the government,
resulting many of them charge exorbitant fees. This prevents children from poor families
to gain a head-start in education. It has been proven that early education is extremely
beneficial for the development of a child. There is a Chinese saying, "a person’s
character is formed when he/she reaches the age of three". So more resources should
be allocated to fund all kinds of early education centers. When a child is developed more
wholesomely in his/her early stages, society as a whole will save a lot of resources later
on. Early stage development of a child far outweighs later adjustment efforts.

Second, Primary Schools.

Primary school education is generally considered in Asia as foundational education. Most

governments expect or even require children between 6-12 to go to school. Because of
limited resources and lack of school buildings, it is not unusual that some nations or
regions have adopted the bi-session system (i.e. half of the children attend the morning
session while the other half the afternoon session). Working with limited budgets, the
teacher-student ratio is usually very high. Under such circumstances, schools are looked
upon as a production line. But students are not products. They are human beings.
Overall, due to the cramped environment and the loaded timetable, teachers are unable
to give their students individual care and attention, which they need sorely during the
formative years. Quality always gives way to quantity in the Asian scene.

Third, Secondary Schools.

Generally, secondary schools are packed with many different subjects. Many schools
consider that students should have a wider knowledge, hence the more subjects, the
better. Then, schools tend to concentrate on subject-oriented teaching rather than
student-oriented education because teachers feel that it is more concrete and easier to
deal with subjects than with students. It is also true that to work with students and
especially in trying to solve their problems are extremely time consuming; and time in
school is considered a luxury for teachers (whose work load is very heavy).

Students have to take on a lot of pressure, pressure from doing their home work, and
particularly preparing for tests and examinations. According to one survey in Hong
Kong, many students are suffering from lack of sleep. Students who failed in public
examinations sought to end their life is not unheard of. According to another survey in
Hong Kong, the highest suicide rate belongs to the elderly and high school students.

There is definitely an overemphasis of studies in high schools in Asia. This certainly is a

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highly distorted view on education. For the main purpose of education is the overall
development of a person.

There is no lack of enthusiasts who want to engage in education reform. A group of

wealthy professionals and academics in Hong Kong are now planning a school adjacent
to the proposed site of cyberport, admitting students from 6-18 (providing six years of
primary and six years of secondary schooling). It will be an exciting experiment. The
only drawback is: since it is a private and self-supporting school, each student has to
pay US$10,000 per year for tuition. Except the very rich, who can afford to send their
children to his school which emphasizes on students’ personal growth and development.

In a recent issue of "Business Week", a primary school headmaster in a church-operated

primary school in Hong Kong was included along with 49 other rich and powerful
persons to be the 50 most promising people in Asia. During an interview, the
headmaster said that he does not care so much about grades and examinations of his
students. His school concentrates to cultivate an atmosphere of fun and learning. All his
students are happy to go to school, and the teachers are trying to give full attention to
their students rather than on text-books. Is it not very refreshing?

If there is not a whole lot of things we can do to improve on our education pattern, at
least we can relax a little bit and help our colleagues and students to do the same. We
must encourage our students to use their spare time to read and arrange as many
exposure opportunities for them as possible during the weekends. People only learn
when they can enjoy themselves.

Fourth, but the most important, the Universities.

Many universities in Asia directly or indirectly rely on government funding, resulting in a

lack of independence. In Hong Kong, 80% of the university recurrent expenses come
from the public purse. It is easy for the government to assert pressure on universities
regarding their direction and policies. A pollster from Hong Kong University consistently
polled that the public did not have too much confidence in the Chief Executive. After an
aide to the Chief Executive "visited" the university, it was reported that tremendous
pressure from the university authorities was exerted to have the pollster stopped polling
on the Chief Executive’s performance and popularity. Eventually, the Vice Chancellor of
the university who tried to influence his staff’s work had to resign. After this fiasco, it
was claimed by a senior member of the university that the allocation of funds to the
university received a bigger cut. This is a case of interference of a university from
government authorities cum self-censorship at their worst!

Self-censorship takes many forms. Four years ago, students wanted to erect the "Pillar
of Shame", a masterpiece created by a famous Danish sculptor at their campus. As it
was deemed to be too sensitive to totalitarian governments, permission was not
granted.

Universities should remain independent. This is to avoid unnecessary interference and

control from government authorities.

Private universities may have a slight edge over public universities, or to be precise
universities funded directly or indirectly by governments. But in order to survive, private
universities often turn to big corporations or foundations controlled by the rich and
powerful for financial support.

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As we now see so clearly that all business conglomerates have their hidden agenda
when they want to fund a university or to financially control a newspaper. In Hong Kong,
for example, all major newspapers and television stations are owned by business
people. As a result, self-censorship is increasingly imminent in Hong Kong and press
freedom is on its way out.

It is unrealistic to expect the powerful business community which contributes

handsomely to the universities but does not have any expectations on the universities.
Naturally it expects the universities not to roughen the feathers of the rich and powerful
but instead concentrate to produce the kind of technocrats it requires. There goes the
academic freedom.

Academic freedom is an important pillar for any university. It gives their professors lots
of rooms to think of new but sometimes crazy ideas. Any kind of progress depends a lot
on crazy ideas, ideas which deviate from tradition and existing laws and guidelines.
Universities need the luxury to build up their own libraries, archives and museums. They
need to pay more emphases on studies of humanities, especially philosophy and
religions as well as fine arts… which are all considered not very "practical" by the down-
to-earth business people.

In order to rely less on funding from government and the business community,
universities must now think of new ways to operate.

To begin with they must cut costs. Generally, universities have become huge
bureaucracies. The highest paid academics are spending their valuable time to do
administrative chores, rather than to do serious teaching and research. Efforts must
make to cut all sorts of red tapes. In simplifying procedures, universities can cut a lot of
administrative staff posts. This in turn can save a lot of money. Universities can also
consider to reduce teaching staff’s salaries and benefits. By and large, professors and
lecturers are extremely well paid. In Hong Kong, head of a university receives roughly
90% of what the most senior servant receives, i.e. about HK$180,000 (US$22,500) a
month, plus housing, a chauffeured car and other benefits. A full professor receives
roughly US$20,000 per month plus benefits. To most citizens in Hong Kong, these are
staggering sums. Universities argue that in order to get the world renowned academics,
they have to pay. But do universities really need top-flight academics more than good
teachers who are dedicated to spend time to teach and nurture their students as well as
to continue to study and do research?

The teaching profession in Hong Kong and perhaps in Asia as a whole is much better
paid now than 50 years ago. However, it is widely recognized that they are not better
teachers than those of two generations ago despite their academic qualifications may be
a lot better. In former times, teachers were poorly paid. But their dedication and
sacrifice had greatly influenced their students. Their students were better persons
(kinder and more caring) than the present students.

Instead of relying on government funding and contributions from big business,

universities can turn their attention to the support of their graduates and the wider
community. It is hard work. However, universities are there to serve the people. So it is
better to have 10,000 people to support them than 10 business corporations. But before
they can raise money from their alumni and the community, they must do everything
possible to make these people feel that they are a part of their universities. There are
lots of ways universities can do to involve their graduates and the community. One
concrete way is to provide continuing education for the people in their community in

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general and their graduates in particular. These extension courses should not only be
skills-enhancement, but life-enrichment as well. Furthermore, the purpose of continuing
education should not be primarily for the increase of revenue, but rather it should try to
engender a spirit of learning for life.

Universities should make every effort to entice community participation. But they should
also get themselves involved in the struggles in their communities. Academics should
also be practioners. That is why when Thamasset University decided to move its main
campus away from Bangkok, it became such a controversy.

IV. Role of Educators

In final analysis, educators at all levels, whether they work as teachers in kindergartens,
in primary and secondary schools or in universities, are the key players in education
reform. But first, they must change their mind-set. Educators must not consider
teaching as only a job or a life career where they can earn a decent living and along the
way getting some job satisfaction. Educators should consider teaching as their calling or
vocation so that they are willing to commit their whole life for the wholesome
development of their students. They must decide to go beyond from the teaching of
subject matter to the nurturing of their students; so that their students will not only
increase their knowledge and wisdom but especially grow in personality and character.
This is a painstaking process. It demands a lot of the teachers’ time and energy just to
be with their students. Indeed this is the mystery of life: life breeds life. When a teacher
is willing to make a personal sacrifice in caring for his/her students, these students will
experience a richer life.

Other than work more intensely with their students, educators should also work with
their parents. Parents can be a real asset in education reform. Their care and attention
for their children will help their children’s personal development immensely. Educators
need to be constantly in touch with the parents of their students and encourage their
parents to cooperate and join forces with the school to develop their children.

On the other hand, parents can hinder education reforms. For example, in the long
standing high school teaching medium controversy in Hong Kong, all educators opined
that it would increase students’ understanding and therefore interests to learn if schools
adopt mother-tongue as the medium in classroom teaching. However, the strongest
objection came from parents. Most parents believe that if schools do not use English as
the medium of teaching, the English standard of their children will decrease which in
turn will be disadvantageous for their childrens’ tertiary education and career
opportunities.

It is true that students learn better when they enjoy and when they want to learn.
Unfortunately, parents often unknowingly give a great deal of unnecessary pressure to
their children. For instance, in Hong Kong, in order to make sure their children are
admitted to the "famous schools", parents are not hesitant to move their homes to
where there is a concentration of such schools. In order to make sure their children do
well in tests and examinations, parents hire tutors to force their children to study extra
hard after school. Some mothers quit their jobs just to be able to spend more time with
their children, not to talk with them or have fun together, but to force them to study.
Four decades ago, when pre-vocational schools were introduced in Hong Kong for
students who were not benefited from the education in grammar schools, it was the
parents who objected and refused to send their children to such schools. These parents
thought that only white-collar jobs would give their children a better future. Educators

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must not overlook the fact that parents need to be re-educated.

Educators should also work with the education authorities who are invariably controlled
by a group of bureaucrats with no vision. They are always preoccupied with pressing
issues and immediate problems. This explains why in Hong Kong education policies are
inconsistent. They change back and forth and therefore are extremely confusing. Two
years ago, the Education Department said that with the exception of 110 secondary
schools who could continue to use English as the teaching medium, the rest (totaling
about 380) would have to use mother-tongue. Now this is no longer the case. A decade
ago, the Hong Kong government forced the tertiary education institutions to
standardize. They should all offer three-year basic programs instead of four as
previously practiced by several universities. Now the education authorities have second
thoughts! Education authorities generally lack long-range planning because they are
muddled about the primary goal of education.

Education authorities do not see education as a long-term investment. All they are
concerned about is immediate results or immediate return. They are not willing to pay
for something which does not have this effect.

More than two decades ago, a group of professionals wanted to pioneer an "Infant
Stimulation and Parents’ Effectiveness Training Project". Their argument was that it has
been proven in many nations in Europe and America that early intervention on retarded
children of all forms and degrees, would greatly improve their later conditions e.g.
severely mentally retarded children would become mildly retarded, etc. This project was
not only good for these children but for their parents as well. Further, the public did not
have to spend a lot of money to provide these children with expensive institutional care
at a later stage. However, the government was not convinced. So this project had to
rely on private donations and fees charging. The project has since been proven that it is
a gem in Hong Kong’s social work services. Likewise, educators should try to convince
the authorities as well as the general public that prevention is better than cure.
Developmental measures are more crucial than remedial measures.

Due to public pressure, education authorities sometimes introduce certain reforms in

policies, funding priorities and procedures. Oftentimes, the teaching professions resent
these top to bottom reforms because according to them, these reforms invariably fail to
solve the root problems in education. Moreover it was the disrespectful attitude of the
authorities which is most distasteful. Education reform is best to start from the bottom.
Autonomy is the key to education reform.

Educators must continue to speak up, forcing those in authorities to have a more open
mind. Afterall, education aims to help people to have an open mind. Only when more
and more people have open minds would open societies come about. Only in an open
society can people live a dignified life.

To conclude, education is far too utilitarian-oriented in Asia. However, in reality,

education should not be a tool for government or big business. Education is for the
development of persons. Only when people who actually care and take up social
responsibility will social development and social change be possible.

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Christian Conference of Asia

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Hong Kong SAR, CHINA
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