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[Serious_Fun]

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9340150

[Serious_Fun]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IF29Ad01.html

While this article almost gets lost among the huge number discussing "changes since the handover", it does touch on the issues mentioned in the original post from The Economist:

[Smoog]

I think Forse's comments are a little duplicitous.
He says that ESF was 70% British (which is true) and is now 50% Chinese (which is also true).
However when he then goes on to say this is because of the failing of the local public school system, he's being disingenuous.
Since 1997, the number of Western expats - especially British ones - have fallen significantly.

[11:59]

[Smoog]

[Horizontal Hero]

As a NET in HK I can only concur (in general terms) that there are major problems with the public education system in HK. It's a bit of a self-perpetuating cycle. Ypu can blame the schools for being obsessed with exams and having a strong emphasis upon rote learning. But there are also social forces impinging upon the schools' capacity for change. Parents pressure schools for exam results, and realistically, even if a student has the greatest analytical and creative capacities on the planet, he/she is deemed a failure if he/she cannot get into a good uni - and only something like 28% get into a real uni in HK (or something round that figure, if my memory serves me correctly). Parents often demand homework, even when it is utterly pointless. And what is this dictation stuff - surely the most mindless waste of time, and something that went out decades ago in most developed nations? Then there is the Chinese cultural problem - chiku nailao - you have to "eat bitterness and endure labour". Work thus has a tendency to become and end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Last week in my school we had a three hour meeting to discuss the "attitude" marks that were going on the report cards. But the meeting was utterly pointless. Teachers had already listed their attitude marks - why go through every damn class in the school to discuss it? If the student got most "A" ratings from his teachers, give him an "A", most "B" ratings give him a "B" and so on. I confess, much of what goes on is beyond me, and can only be explained in resepect to chiku nailao.

The world is changing, but HK's education's culture and education system is not keeping up. In a generation's time HK will be nothing but an obedient puppy at the feet of the mainland master.

[Smoog]