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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 11 May 1988
The pressure of school work on our youth is a well known fact. It is not uncommon for a 10-years old child to have to spend five hours each day after school to finish his home work (taking into account certain amounts of daydreaming and distractions in between). Hardwork is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that there is more in our system of education for an all round development of our young people. Apart from the pursuit of knowledge, they must be given the opportunity to be equipped with the right attitude and values to become a well-adjusted and useful citizen in our community.
Yes, we can gather from the Report on Youth Policy that opportunities are abound outside of school hours for our young people to participate in all sorts of extra-curricular social and sports activities. But, how many do actually take part? Since these activities are outside of the school system, how many young people, and indeed parents, 'would consider them worthwhile activities? After all, these activities do not contribute directly to what they were conditioned to believe as the ingredients of success, namely, academic achievements.
Coming back for a moment to those parents who are guilty of neglecting their children. There are family-life education classes sponsored by the Social Welfare Department and by voluntary organisations. But then the parents who participate in these activities are by definition the motivated ones. They do not include the problematic ones who are extremely difficult to reach.
We have been told by experts that parents have very significant and lasting effects on their children. But how many of us parents have been taught how to develop the right attitude before we have a child on our own hands?
A voluntary organisation that I am associated with, the Hong Kong Society for Child Health and Development, recently sponsored the compilation by a team of experts of a curriculum for teaching Form I to Form III students on the subject 'On Becoming a Parent'. This very worthwhile project received very warm support from seven schools. I hope that their experience in this pilot scheme will eventually benefit not only the particular students involved but also our system of education.
The length of this debate prevents me from covering adequately all that I would like to say about the way we educate our youth. I can perhaps summarise by saying that there should be a wider perspective in our education system: one that aims to develop to the fullest the potentials of our youth not only in academic achievements, but also in the development of their physical and mental health; and in the cultivation of their moral values and attitudes.
The Central Committee on Youth and the Working Party on Youth Policy under the leadership of Mrs. Rosanna TAM have done an excellent job in the preparation of a Report on Youth Policy. I welcome their recommendation on the creation of a commission on youth. As enumerated in the report, there are vast amounts of activities and programmes for youth presently pro- vided by government departments and voluntary organisations. The proposed
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