ホンコンの教育問題

The problems of education in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is deemed an international city. Therefore, a well-established education system is required for nurturing children to maintain Hong Kong’s competitiveness in the global market. Certainly, Hong Kong government provides nine years of free compulsory education for children, which can ensure that every child has the chance to have basic education. However, it is undeniable that there are some problems in Hong Kong’s education system. Firstly, over-emphasizing English lead to polarization between EMI (English as Medium of Instruction School) and CMI (Chinese as Medium of Instruction School). Second, exam-oriented education make students suffer from tremendous stress. Finally, insufficient university places cause intense competition for entering university. In the following paragraphs, the problems of education system in Hong Kong will be discussed in more detail, and some suggestions would be given for solving those problems.

As an international city, it is clear that English is an important language in Hong Kong. Therefore, Hong Kong government makes a lot of effort to maintain high standard of English of its citizens. In education, secondary schools are divided into EMI and CMI. The aim is to improve standard of English of students, and at the same time to stress Hong Kong is a part of China. However, it is believed that students studying at EMI have better academic results than those studying at CMI. This kind of labeling causes a conflict between EMI and CMI, and a dispute about whether good or not using mother tongue as medium of instruction and teaching. Consequently, EMI seems to be more superior to CMI in people’s mind. Over-emphasizing English results in polarization between EMI (English as Medium of Instruction School) and CMI. To deal with this problem, Hong Kong government should draw citizen’s attention to the benefit of studying at CMI and avoid their misunderstanding.

Like many countries, Hong Kong also uses examination result to assess the ability of a student. Admittedly, academic result could be a good assessment of someone’s ability. However, education in Hong Kong is too exam-oriented, and people pay too much attention to academic result. Many students are under enormous stress in this education system. They believe that future will be without hope if they fail in public examination. Therefore, most of Hong Kong students would prefer to attend tutorial class to learn examination skills after school. Obviously, there is a general belief that academic result is important than the learning process. Fortunately, it seems that Hong Kong government tries to solve this problem by implementing 334 education reform. Under this new academic reform, how students think will also be assessed in the public examination. However, there is still a need to motivate students through active learning.

Last but not least, the university places are not sufficient enough to meet the current demand. There is no doubt that the number of university is limited in Hong Kong, but the demand for entering university is very high. As a result, only a small portion of students have the chance to complete a degree program in the university. So, it is necessary to increase the university places. Some people would argue that increasing the university places will lower the standard of education and weaken Hong Kong competitiveness. However, I would argue that it would only provide more opportunity for students to study in the university. The curricula of courses in the university would not be changed and hence there is no need to worry about standard of education. Recently, Hong Kong government has announced that the university places will be increased in the future. I hope that this can help to resolve current situation.

To conclude, although there are a lot of education problems in Hong Kong, Hong Kong government seems to put a lot of efforts into solving those problems. I am looking forward to the education reforms.