Abstract
Education is productive in a broad sense. It promotes excellence not only by imparting job-related skills, but by allowing each individual to feel happy through being at home with themselves, realizing their own potential, finding meaning in living, and gaining in confidence. To achieve such ends, the focus of schools must not lie in setting students to compete with one another and must not effectively treat and label students who fall behind in the competition as outcasts or inferior. We will need more enlightened educational and social institutions that respect individuals as persons, because teachers cannot teach one thing while the system teaches another. To be effective, schools have to be congruent with the society—in values, habits, traditions, and the stage of economic development. This chapter also addresses such issues as examinations and drilling, teachers’ autonomy, and curriculum.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Education reform and the quest for excellence: The Hong Kong story |
Publisher | Hong Kong University Press |
Pages | 9-22 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISBN (Print) | 9622097456 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2005 |