Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, in giving remarks at the “21st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition Hong Kong Region’s awards ceremony, revealed that his team was hammering out plans to “broaden the scope for the youths’ upward mobility and encourage them to realize their dreams”.
The CE is now inviting stakeholders, including professionals, to come up with suggestions on how to build a better future for the city during the public consultation for his first Policy Address. There are likely many ideas to be floated during the consultation period, one of which should put an emphasis on equal distribution of educational resources, as education is crucial to upward social mobility.
Hong Kong’s youth development is facing two major obstructions; namely, an imbalanced distribution of educational resources, and intergenerational poverty, which are mutually reinforcing in a sense.
The first and foremost objective of the city’s youth policy therefore should break the curse of intergenerational poverty through education so that impoverished children can have a dream for their future.
The two problems should top the agenda of the Youth Bureau, whose youth development policy should balance resources and generate overall youth development among all strata of the society.
Our young minds have reported a high and fair rate in terms of basic education. However, those from grassroots families still have fewer opportunities to attend high-level educational programs. Aggravating the poverty spiral, children from low-income families are deprived of many studying opportunities, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed the learning models. Suspended classes and online courses induce obvious discrepancies when comparing the underprivileged group to those from better-off families. The underprivileged group must wrestle with many hindrances such as unstable internet connections, insufficient electronic equipment, and an undesirable learning environment. Although some of them are assisted with electronic devices from charity organizations, most of the grassroots parents, because of their insufficient educational backgrounds, fail to provide the support their children need to learn from home effectively.
To enhance upward social mobility for young people, the government and all the privileged stakeholders should put themselves into the shoes of the underprivileged youth, actively engage in youth development efforts, and respond to their situations with pragmatic and constructive solutions
The Youth Bureau does not need to start everything from scratch, but it needs to do more to ensure equal chances for the less-privileged. So far, an increasing number of underprivileged students have been granted access to the QEF e-Learning Ancillary Facilities Programme. The bureau, however, needs to revisit the allocation of educational resources to support pupils from less-well-off families to adapt to remote-learning mode and to improve their learning efficiency.
Earlier in July, Eric Chan Kwok-ki, chief secretary for administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, launched a task force to lift underprivileged students out of intergenerational poverty. The preliminary step is to spot 2,000 underprivileged junior secondary students, particularly those who are living in subdivided flats, as the first cohort for a one-year period of learning support. The innovative program comprises a mentorship, a personal development plan and financial support to broaden the students’ horizons and foster networking activities.
The one-year plan needs a set of evaluation factors to measure its effectiveness and to ensure its quality and sustainability. Among tens of thousands of deprived junior secondary students, only 2,000 candidates are chosen, making it too small to initiate transformative force for a tangible result of sustainable change. Moreover, if the mentors did not grow up in difficult environments, are they able to put themselves into students’ shoes and come up with appropriate advice? Can a one-year apprenticeship be sufficient to resolve profound intergenerational poverty?
Even for those who can stand out academically, many deprived candidates need to rely on student-grant loans to finance their university schooling, which leaves them in debt upon graduation before any form of income can be generated to keep themselves afloat. Given that the HKSAR government has amassed a huge surplus over the years, increasing subsidies to secondary students is advisable if the Youth Bureau wants to make a difference. Reducing university tuition fees, either partially or in full, for the needy should also be considered. With these measures, the financial pressure on talented students from grassroots families will be alleviated, and as fresh grads they can pursue a bright future without being forced to run into the vicious circle of debt. For those who are not up to academic pursuits and those who are ready to enter the job market upon graduating from high school, the bureau should provide some form of loans to help them pursue value-added education while working. I hope this is taken into consideration as a pathway for young people to achieve upward mobility.
Over the years, the central government has been supportive of the HKSAR government in solving youth issues in all aspects. The youth matters, not only for the future of the city, but also for Beijing’s evaluation of the performance of the new HKSAR government. President Xi Jinping, in his speech at the inauguration ceremony for the sixth-term HKSAR government, urged the city’s new governing team to address youth issues.
On July 1, the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau was established as one of the policy bureaus in the revamped government structure of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This suggests youth development is getting greater attention from the HKSAR government.
In all, the incumbent government’s emphasis on supporting the youth is a promising and much-welcomed start. To enhance upward social mobility for young people, the government and all the privileged stakeholders should put themselves into the shoes of the underprivileged youth, actively engage in youth development efforts, and respond to their situations with pragmatic and constructive solutions. These approaches combined will play a pivotal role in effectively tackling the hindrances to youth development. Concrete measures and pragmatic policies are needed for the new administration to win the hearts and minds of the youths.
The author is deputy director of the Hong Kong CPPCC Youth Association.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.