February 2014
41
We do have the Jockey Club Sara
Rose School, we do have learning
support centres in our schools, where
we do meet the needs of children with
additional support needs. We still have
the subvention for that area of our
work: that hasn’t been removed and
I know that the EDB are conducting
a review of SEF (special education)
funding across Hong Kong. That’s
certainly an area where I’d want to
work closely across the three pillars.
How can we ensure that every child
who lives in or comes to Hong Kong is
going to get a chance?
T:
When I hear you describe it, it’s
hard to imagine the other side of
the argument that some people are
making, which is that ESF is an out-
dated colonial holdover.
B:
I think that’s gone. With the
subvention going, we need to look
forward. Of course we’re inward-
looking: we need to look at what
we’re doing and make sure that
we’re improving. But we also need
to be outward-looking. A number
of people have asked me about the
increase in competition with new
schools moving in. I welcome that! If
we have children desperately looking
for school places, then we need to be
embracing whoever wants to come
and work in Hong Kong, and all work
in partnership and strengthen what’s
there.
And we need to be forward-looking,
because education across the world
is changing. Parents are looking for
more than the traditional approach
to teaching. It’s also changing with
technology. Technology in itself isn’t
education, but technology in itself
shouldn’t get in the way of education.
Let’s not be frightened to see how we
use it to improve education. But, as
well as that, we need to look at what
are the jobs of the future. What are
the skills that children will need?
We have to look at nurturing the
whole child. Yes, of course, they’ve
got to be literate and numerate, and
they’ve got to have good core skills,
but as well as that, we’ve got to help
children develop entrepreneurial
skills, we have to be creative, we have
to nurture that so that children can
be passionate about whatever it is they
want to embody and do in their lives.
We don’t know the future, and the
pace of everything is moving so fast
that, to keep ahead of the curve and
to ensure that our children can face
the future confident, without fear, the
education system has to change.
And what’s really interesting is
the PISA results. (The Programme
for International Student Assessment
– PISA – is a worldwide study of
15-year-old students’ performance
in maths, science and reading. The
results were announced the day of this
interview.) Countries in Asia do very
well, and yet we’re not celebrating.
And we’re not celebrating, I think,
because we know we’ve not quite got it
right – it’s high academic achievement,
but at what cost? I think countries
in Asia are starting to look towards
educationalists who are talking about
creativity, about the importance of
nurturing the whole child, and they
are looking beyond academic results.
Of course it’s important that children
can achieve high standards, but people
are looking for more.
T:
Have you been surprised by,
not only the focus on test scores,
but also the focus on the number of
extracurricular activities for what are
probably considered to be some of the
most overscheduled children in the
world?
B:
(Laughs) Yes. I suppose what
surprised me was the explanation that
people live in such small spaces that
they have to keep their children busy.
But, we’ve been talking with
the principals about what the core
values and purpose of ESF are. Part
of the discussion has been around
the integrity of childhood – this is
an organisation where our senior
people recognise the importance of
the integrity of childhood: that we
should be enjoying and celebrating
the time; we should be nurturing
children during their childhood and
not rushing them ahead.
I can understand from a parent’s
perspective that you want to ensure
that your child gets every possible
chance. I understand the pressure
on parents to send their children to
extracurricular tuition, lessons, sports
or instrumental instruction, because
they want to ensure their child is going
to excel at either one thing or more
