Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my opinions on the report “Disappointed Employers”. Nowadays, more and more Hong Kong employers blame schools and universities for failing to produce in terms of behaviour and skills the sort of workers they want. I deeply sympathise with the employers. In this letter, I will give suggestions on how to deal with the problem.

Hong Kong has long been blamed for its ossified education system. Not only parents, but also employers put too much emphasis on exam results. Most of them only judge people by their exam results. The nature of education is to develop people’s innate potential and to equip one with what is essential to be a member of society. However, the education system nowadays wrongly put emphasis on how many “A”s students obtain in exams. Hence, students only focus on their studies and they lack the skills which are necessary in the real world.

Employers are annoyed about employees’ unprofessional working attitude. For example, some waiters don’t know how to take orders well. They don’t follow directions and always make mistakes. Some of them even have trouble learning how to do the job correctly. Worse still, they can’t keep secrets and share confidential information with other employees. To stop this trend from worsening, the government should spring into action before it is too late. The new education reform “3-3-4” should put less stress on academic performance but instead place more importance on students’ performance in all aspects such as qualities necessary for future careers like punctuality, level of self-motivation, politeness, language ability and so on. Added to the above, the government should provide a wide range of subjects to cater for students’ diverse abilities. Also, each class should be small in size so that teachers can easily catch up with students’ progress, thereby increasing teaching efficiency. Our society needs well rounded students who keep abreast of current affairs from different parts of the world. Only by promoting well-rounded education can high flyers be produced.

Moreover, schools should be a place that provides a natural social environment to prepare adolescents for adulthood. Schools should provide more outdoor activities for students to join, such as voluntary work. Students can benefit from doing charity work since they can contribute to society and at the same time acquire skills that are not taught at school. Students can develop leadership skills, interpersonal skills and other skills through outdoor activities. After their graduation, those students won’t have difficulty adjusting to the real world.

Teenagers are the masters of our future society. We have the obligation to develop teenagers’ potential. It helps increase Hong Kong’s competitiveness.

Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong