Development of a Learning System: The Hong Kong Story, an Insider’s Reflective Account

Abstract

This chapter delineates the education system in Hong Kong, in the context that it has gained some reputation in international comparisons. It traces the origins of the system: the cultural values that favor education and celebrate competition due to the ancient civil examination, whole-person education and school autonomy modeling after the British grammar schools, as well the strong liberal ideology due to the free market. All these have laid the foundation for a competitive culture in education. It then traces the long-time evolution of the system after WWII, which happened in the context of government’s aggressive social policies yet was accompanied by the rise of the civil society with liberal inclinations. The consequence was the emergence of widespread policy consultations, which in education led to the historic Overall Review by an OECD panel in 1981. The Overall Review has further reinforced the autonomy of schools and professionalism among teachers. Among others, it led to the birth of the Education Commission, which eventually launched the overhauling of education and reform in 1999. This reflected a foresight of the fundamental social change and was done with a meticulous dissemination process. Central to the Reform was the removal of unnecessary public assessments, a learning-oriented curriculum reform, and a fundamental e-structuring of the academic system. However, before the end of the first round of implementation in 2016, the dramatic changes in the political environment have posed new challenges which had never entered the education formula and beg new questions for the further development of education.