September 2002

Dear Friends,

As the school year starts up again, thoughts about Hong Kong’s educational system come to mind. When I was first in Hong Kong for a year in 1986, I taught English at a church-related vocational school. My students were around 14 to 17 years old and were studying to work in the hotel or a technical field. At the time, I didn’t fully appreciate why these teenagers were no longer in the regular school system. I didn’t really understand why they were preparing to go to work

By law, Hong Kong children have nine years of free education. After 9th grade, the number of students who can continue to study gets smaller and smaller. In 11th grade, all students take a public examination in both English and Chinese, which determines if they can continue on to grades 12 and 13. This year, 120,000 students took the Hong Kong certificate of education exam. Only 30,000 students will get a coveted place in grade 12 and hopefully go on to university after grade 13. And the other 90,000?

That is the tragedy of the Hong Kong education system. These other 90,000 will either have to pay a lot of money for private schooling, go overseas to study (if they can afford it), or simply try to find work.

In today’s weak economy in Hong Kong, these young people have little chance of getting a job, much less a decent one. Unemployment is now 7.8 percent, which means 500,000 people are out of work. The temptation for young people to engage in illegal activities to earn money is strong. The media has called these “double-loss youth.”

To its credit, the Hong Kong Education Department recognizes the problems. It has been trying to implement reforms for the past few years, but each attempt at improvement seems to set off another round of controversies. It will take many more years to “fix” this broken system, from kindergarten level all the way to university.

The church in Hong Kong has a large stake in the education system. The Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Anglican churches manage around 40 percent of the public schools as a legacy of their historic mission work. It appears the government is trying to take away some of the church’s authority over these schools (which are largely funded by tax money), and the church is resisting such a move. They acknowledge the need for changes but not at the expense of their educational mission. Christian-sponsored schools aim to nurture the whole person¾mind, body, and spirit. This is vital for young people today who desperately need to know the love of God and the love of the community.

I have a vested interest in seeing genuine reform in the education system in Hong Kong. My children and relatives are studying in these schools and face the same fate many young people are going through now. Please pray for the schools, students, teachers, parents, principals, and the Education Department as they begin another academic year. Will it be a year for them to experience the “thrill of victory” or the “agony of defeat?”

May we all do our part in giving hope and light to these precious, beautiful children of God.

Judy Chan

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 179