'Guidelines To Tackle Aimless Slackers In HK Schools'

A government adviser on values education says there's a global problem of young people lacking goals in life and that’s why “diligence” has been added as one of the core values to be taught in Hong Kong schools.

Alan Chow, a member of the Curriculum Development Council’s standing committee on values education, said on Wednesday that members noticed more young people in general are slacking and living a so-called “low-desire” life, so there’s a need to emphasise "hard work" in the new guidelines in the Values and Education Curriculum Framework.

“It’s not Hong Kong’s unique problem. All around the world, young people in general tend to indulge in leisure and despise hard work. They get by and have no goals. They think they will never be able to buy a flat, so they spend their time on pleasure,” he told an RTHK programme on Wednesday.

The new framework makes reference to an earlier Moral and Civic Education Curriculum Framework, but removes some wording, including “respect human rights” and “critical thinking”.

Chow said “if some terms are written in a rather sensitive way”, frontline teachers may feel worried when they have to teach them.

“For the declaration of human rights, or all the human rights standards around the world outside Hong Kong, even though the document doesn’t specifically state these terms, it doesn’t mean we don’t respect human rights,” he said.

He said he believes teachers are professional enough to make their own judgement on such matters.