The warning came as a survey showed that youngsters were indifferent to international affairs and even global events that happened in Hong Kong, such as the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation two years ago.
The social service division of the Church of United Brethren in Christ Hong Kong interviewed 747 secondary school children in May and June, and only 2.4 per cent said they learned about international current affairs at school.
Nearly 80 per cent said the mass media, including the internet, was a key medium.
Fifty-six per cent described world affairs as irrelevant or boring, and 13 per cent said world knowledge could not lead to better exam scores.
The division's Cheng Tsz-wa said the survey showed the curriculum had failed to develop student's curiosity about the outside world.
"Even the mainland is equipping people to catch up with the world. It is wrong to give priority to national education over world affairs while emphasising that Hong Kong is an international city," Mr Cheng said.
While most respondents said they would love to learn about Japan and the United States, only 17 per cent said they paid most attention to the social and economic development of those countries. About 63 per cent knew more about celebrities, fashion, music and movies.
Some 65.5 per cent said they seldom had foreign acquaintances other than their English teachers.
The group said the government should revise the school curriculum and set up a youth fund to encourage students to broaden their horizons.
2 comments:
This ignorance is a real problem and threat to the full development of youngsters. As the light of tomorrow, we do need to be aware of important global events. This connects us with the world and teaches us valuable lessons.
In most countries, education is put first before everything. However students' ability is often judged by their academic achievement. Therefore this problem is not fully their fault. Examinations stress on the importance of textbook knowledge, thus daily news happenings are seen useless in the eyes of youngsters.
Moreover, even if teenagers possess the motive to read newspapers, they could not sustain this daily habit.
Therefore, the content of examinations is now altered to be news-relevant based. Instead of reciting meaningless information, students could now think critically as well as taking small steps into the world
It is always a disappointment to find that HK students are rather ignorant in this aspect. One way I stay away from posting international news here on my blog is partly because of the reason.
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