|
|
|
|
對語文基準試結果之看法16 June 2001 On the morning following the announcement of the examination result, when I was brushing me teeth, my wife asked me what was my opinion on the examination result and how could the standard of the teacher be raised ? I told her that there was a very simple solution. Just raise the salaries of all present teachers ten-folds, then the standards of the teachers will improve tremendously 30 years later. Do you think so ? Change takes time, especially human. In the last 200 years, the living standard of human improved a lot because of the advancement in science. We are enjoying a living standard even a king could not enjoy 200 years ago. For example, could he switch on an air conditioner when he felt hot. On another side, Jesus has come for over 2000 years, are we still greedy and indulged in power ? When we are blaming the others, should we consider what was happening out there in the last 15 years ? In last 2 decades, Hong Kong was enjoying an annual GDP growth of about 7-10%. If you were doing business in these 15 years, even if you were not outperforming others, your business would also enjoy, on average, a similar growth rate. This, probably, explains the present difficulties faced by the business sector as the GDP growth is so weak that it is even lower than the rate of growth of working population. Under this situation, personal wealth is not growing any more and this discourages the spending of the public. If you were an educated young man and knew that the opportunity out there was immense, would you choose teaching as your profession? For these reasons, only several kinds of people would do so. For example, those people who were working for a mission like those Jesuit Fathers and some ambitious teachers. In my career, I met a very devoted Irish Lady in a school a few years ago. She was so hard working that she marked almost every single mistake that her students made. Her comment for the students was usually more lengthy that the passage that her student wrote. By paying such an effort unparalleled to the others, even the worst student in her class got a C in HKCEE. However, after 15 years of struggling in this field, she dropped out from her profession for some personal reasons. Teaching is always a tough job. It is not for everybody even if you are academically sound. And those who are academically sound also know these. What the government trying to do is to work again the market force and force the teachers to raise the standard suddenly? Do you think by just doing an examination or taking a SAT exam will improve the teaching quality of teachers ? In cultural evolution, Chinese government also wanted to knock everything down, reengineer the mind of everybody and create an utopia. I think everybody knows eventually what happened. We must admit that most of us are only ordinary. We do not have the endurance and faith that the missionaries have. Just like many other people in the world, we are just human, we are not Saints. If you evaluate the performance of an average teacher as an average worker in business world, for sure, you will also be satisfied with their performance. Just imagine, if you go into a first class restaurant with 40 seats fully occupied and there is only 1 waiter, will you expect a first class service? Under this situation, even the best waiter will not be able to satisfy all customers. If the waiter is only an average one, what could you suggest him to do ? Take a training course or an examination ? Now, may we change the scenario ? If the restaurant is not a first classed one, but only a fast food restaurant. The only duty of the only waiter is to provide food when the customers come to take it by themselves. In your opinion, which group of customers will get more satisfied, the group going to the first class restaurant or the group going to the fast food restaurant ? At present, the government is encouraging the public to expect something unrealistic : 1. Most teachers are not competent. 2. What should we do if we found that some teachers are under-performed under present system. Should we change the teacher or the system ? How can the underlying problem be solved ? 3. If you want a first class service, how much are you expecting to pay ? There is a saying "Don't turn the rock over, there may be snakes or worms coming out." Before you have the solution to tackle a problem, don't uncover the problem. Politically, both sides, government and teachers, are losing marks. The examination created a lose-lose situation. It is easy to blame the others instead of looking at our own weaknesses. As a teacher, I agree to have certain mechanism to ensure all teachers would be able to reach certain standard. However, the solution takes years to implement. I think the teachers should form an official professional body just like the doctors and lawyers do. And then take another 5 to 10 years to set the agreed standard for the teacher. Just like the newly established professional body of herbal doctor and any other professional body, we must admit the present situation and expect the situation to improve in the future. A quote from Lady Margaret Tatcher, a former UK minister : "If wealth can be grown from tree, I would like to provide the best welfare to UK citizens." Mr Paul Yip |
|
將關於這個 Web 站台的問題或建議的郵件寄到paulyipkh@hotmail.com。 |