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| Truffle making on Thursday night in our halls. |
This week I have been busy working on a group presentation for our Hong Kong History and Culture class. The topic we have decided to address and discuss is that Hong Kong ranks the highest in the world rich-poor gap. From my personal experience and perceptions of Hong Kong since I arrived here a month ago, I find this extremely surprising. When I think of Hong Kong, what comes to mind are skyscrapers, business and finance. Such is the wealth of riches in Hong Kong that the combined wealth of the 40 richest people is $135 billion. However, according to the latest available statistics, an estimated 1.2 million citizens live below the poverty line in Hong Kong, which is 1 in 7 of the population.
From my research for the group presentation this week, I discovered that there has been much debate concerning the role of the education system and how it has been contributing to the problem of the widening rich-poor gap. An issue of growing concern is that 13% of the younger generation are allegedly receiving a worse education and working in worse-paid jobs than their parents. The education system in Hong Kong is biased towards those who excel in writing and logic arithmetic. However, many children whose talents lie in areas such as music, sports and the more creative subjects (which are not as highly regarded or indeed, assessed in the curriculum) are overlooked. This leads to many children developing a sense of failure before they reach secondary school. In poorer families, parents need to work long hours in order to make a living resulting in a lot of children growing up without a mentor at home to help them with their education. This means it is extremely hard for them to overcome the system.
Another major contributor to the problem is the “narrowness” of the job market since most of the jobs are in the real estate and finance sectors. Because of this, the economy in Hong Kong is described as a ‘knowledge-based economy’. The importance therefore, of a good education for young people here is crucial especially, as I said earlier, in the area of writing and arithmetic. Fortunately, back in Northern Ireland, even with selection, such relentless pressure to succeed is much less.
As a prospective teacher it has made me realise the importance of not over-emphasising narrow academic success but giving children learning opportunities in science, geography, history and the wider curriculum. Children should also be encouraged to pursue their talents in other areas such as art, music and sport.
This week I also played in an inter-hall football tournament which I really enjoyed. The tournament consisted of 3 teams: my floor wore the Real Madrid strip and managed to draw 3-3 in our first game against ‘Arsenal’ and then we went on to win our second game against ‘AC Milan’ 4-2! I just hope there were some Manchester United scouts present to see my volley in the second match!
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| Real Madrid's latest signing adds some more 'bulk' to the side. |
On Thursday night we also made some truffles in our hall. Luckily there was still some chocolate left at the end even though I was constantly ‘testing’ the chocolate throughout!
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| Jamie Oliver in disguise? |
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| The finished goods - Thorntons may not even sell truffles as delicious and aesthetically pleasing as these ones! |
Now the workload is beginning to pick up here at university, we have quite a few group projects to work on in the upcoming weeks. On Wednesday we are doing our group presentation in Hong Kong History and Culture and we also have to create an assessment tool for our Assessment module this week. This consists of a short written test lasting around 20 minutes which will include around 3-5 different item/question formats. Our group also has to create a rationale, an answer guide for any open-ended items and also include an answer sheet for all objectively scored items. I will update you next week in regards to how I get on with this work.
Until next time...
Joi Gin (Goodbye)
Michael.
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