The current problems between the IEd (Institute of Education) and the EMB (Education and Manpower Bureau) has captivated a lot of us. Officially it is a fight between certain individuals on one side against individuals on the other. In reality it arises from a deep-seated problem in the system. And the problem is not just limited to the case with the IEd. It has much wider impacts.
The EMB sets the policies on education in Hong Kong, monitors the quality standards, and controls the funding. This is a slightly simplistic view, but largely valid. In the hands of an all-knowing, wise, and benevolent dictator it can be the most efficient. Unfortunately it is regular human beings who work at the EMB and they are bound to make mistakes, whether intentionally or un-intentionally. The consequence is that the schools, the students, the parents, and eventually everybody suffer.
One way to reduce the possibility of conflicts of interest, mistakes, and abuses is to separate the three powers, and vest them in agencies relatively independent from each other.
4 comments:
I think that one of the biggest problems with the EMB (and indeed, with the policy-makers in Hong Kong education) is that there are not enough people in there who have a real stake in the education system.
What I mean by that is that for too many of them, it's either just a job, or it is a political game, rather than a mission to really improve the system for the next generation.
It's hard to blame them, though. For example, how many of the policy-makers went to university in Hong Kong? How many of them send their children to the public Hong Kong schools, instead of the expensive international schools? And how many of them are planning on sending their children to college in Hong Kong?
Now contrast that with Singapore, where local children are required to go to public schools, and many (if not most) of their government officials graduated from the local universities. No wonder why the S'pore government has a stake in making their education as good as possible, to the point where they'd take down three whole city blocks in the heart of the city to build a new university!
Without stakes of this sort, our policy makers are reduced to just looking at figures and thinking with their heads instead of with their hearts. That's why we have fiascos like the CUHK-HKUST mergers.
Just my two cents :-)
同意 Stephen. 權力來自人, 而非制度, 的確產生很多麻煩.
我覺得政府總是要"控制"著教育, 對教育工作者也不很尊重, 將學校"工具化". 起初阻撓教師自主, 基準試, 到最近鮮魚行的殺校, 都可見其一意孤行.
I have some first hand experience in this. I am helping a primary school in an area where the population is aging, hence fewer primary school students, and many schools in the area are threatened. Yet in the past few years several new, spacious, and richly-equipped primary schools have been built in the area. Why?
For your information, I sent this posting to the South China Morning Post a couple of days ago and it appeared today (Saturday, 7th April) in the Letters to the Editor Section. You have to be a subscriber to read it online though.
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