There have been several Radio and TV talk shows about changing the current school class size to smaller number of students per class in order to provide better quality education as well as to curb the government’s way of forcing schools to close down the entire 1st grade for any school having less than 23 1st grade applicants due to the ever decreasing in the population of the younger generation.
In one TV talk show a couple of days ago, two callers called in and expressed their doubts to the Headmaster guest’s intentions of calling for smaller classes was for the teachers’ own benefit of having less to do than for the good of providing better quality education. They argued that changing to 25 students per class from 30 makes little difference.
For the life of me, I have no idea that 30 student classes exists in HK. All the schools I knew have at least 38 students per class in any grade. There may very well be so that I am just not aware of but smaller classes definitely has more advantages than disadvantages. I for one am a perfect example of the result of both size classes.
In a Form 3 Chemistry class here in HK, I had a question for the teacher. I seldom raise questions if any at all. The teacher said to me that if I didn’t know the answer to that question at that point, I would never know the answer; and he continued the class without answering my question! Ain’t that the truth though, for I have forgotten the question and I can’t remember if I ever did find out the answer. However, I doubt he knew the answer either.
Needless to say, in HK, my grades were quite a disaster. I learned very little but managed to talk my way thru a supposedly 15 minute overseas school application interview entirely in English with a foreign former Headmaster in over one and a half hour and got accepted!
After just 3 months in the overseas school with just 25 students per class, my grades were among the top half of my class. When students asked questions, we didn’t have to raise our hands first like we did in HK. We just asked and there could be a class discussion on the question if necessary. We learned the knowledge, not how to match the standard answers on test papers regardless the standard answers themselves are correct or not.
Those who do not want smaller classes argued with the feasibility of the financial status – more students per class means more students taught for lesser costs. That’s extremely short sighted like most other local business decisions. Better education means better educated citizens. The benefits are unquestionably enormous for a much broader future.
That said, I am however forever grateful that I didn’t learn much when I was studying in HK. For I’ve found out now that more often than not, what some of the teachers taught here were utterly wrong! Like Mr. Kan from Form 1 History class said that the word “Arts” should be “Art” for there is no such word as “Arts“. As well as Mr Lam, my Primary 6 Form-master, who said that word “badminton” is spelled with a “g”, for the word is “badmington”!
With teachers like these, it makes GWB a spelling bee champ.
To Mr. Kan and Mr. Lam, I am still forever learning by researching, writing, and self correcting blogs here at the very least. What have you been doing all these years?
I’d prefer smarter teachers to smaller classes.
From kindergarden to university, I studied in Hong Kong. It’s pity that I don’t know the word ‘lettuce’ after I graduated from secondary school, as this word never has anything to do with chemistry or physics. Oh well, I have a stright A from GCE A-level.
My secondary school is a not-so-bad one, but there was a lot of silly stories about how the teachers ‘answer’ our questions. In one case a classmate asked the pure math teacher how to prove sin(sin(sin(sin…..sin(x)))))) tends to zero when the number of taking sines tends to infinity. It is a simple workout, but the teacher had a ingenious answer for that: she takes a calculator, type anything in it, and press the button ’sine’ unter the screen shown zero.
With such teachers, I honestly don’t believe the quality of our education can improve with smaller classes. The teachers simply pass incorrect knowledge, attitude and discourage the kids…. if they ever care to answers questions raised.
I agree with you that the qualification of teachers is important and may be more so than smaller classes. However, these are two entirely different problems and should both be addressed and solved. Not just one or the other.
Poor teachers can’t teach even one on one, but those who can teach can teach much more effectively with smaller classes.
The problem in Hong Kong is that everyone, not just students, are cramped with little space and time everywhere. There is no room either spatially or temporally for anyone to think and prep properly for anything. Like students, teachers also need their space and time to better prepare for their classes.
Yea…i totally agree with what u v said. i m one of the victims, i would say. during my whole form 4 to form 7 period, i just learnt all the stuff by myself. most of the time, teachers were just giving directions on how to do the exam questions or telling us what is out of syllabus and what will be included in the exams. no one raise their hands to ask any questions. actually, questions are not at all welcomed during classes. questions are thought to be hindering the progress of the class. teachers all want to teach as quick as possible in order to meet the teaching schedule. and i m even more surprised when i found it’s the same in my university, which is HKUST. here, the pressure and workload is just unbearable. there’r projects, presentations, tests, exams, writing tasks from time to time. all are non-stop-like. i really wonder why should the dead education system is just never bought to life. i am suffering.
Hang in there, Liz. As bad as things may seem, they always get better when it’s over. Besides, at least your English is as good if not better than the best teachers that I have met here in HK.
Learning is a life long process. Schools are just there for the first quarter or so of our lives. After that, we are on our own, and there is nothing else to stop us from learning the way that suits us best.
I have learned to go with the flow and whatever turns the teachers on in class since my secondary schools. I have also learned much more on my own. Consider that a chance to learn how to deal with people as sort of a social skill.
As good as the overseas school was to me, a former schoolmate from there told me a few months ago just how a rebel he used to be; and how much he hated the school as well as his family. When he told his dad how it was a total waste of his money for sending him there after he had graduated, in that he could have gotten good grades and learned all that knowledge anywhere without going to a boarding school, his dad told him that all that money, all that knowledge and all didn’t matter. What mattered was that the process had taught him how to live with people he disliked. And that in itself worth every penny. Having heard that, the schoolmate had finally realized how wrong he had been.
The problem of the system is one thing. But so long as we stay focused, now that we are old enough to know better, there is nothing that can stop us from learning.
God Speed.
you are right, there’s nth that can stop us from learning. thanks for ur kind advice.:)
Thank you for surfing this blog.