Hong Kong's education system is in trouble - Part I

I remember that I read the followings when I was in the secondary school:

"universities in Hong Kong have minimal funding in Research and Development as they were never designed to be research-based universities. The government only wants the university to produce sufficient manpower (skilled labour) to help ruling Hong Kong."

Since the establishment of the first university in Hong Kong in 1912, the colonial government wanted it to produce a group of local elites to help the former ruling this tiny place. The university taught these elites to become skilled labour so they knew to follow standards and procedures, but not to know why and how these standards and procedures came from. Some of these skilled labour entered the government and later became senior officials. The problem is that: the ruler, in fact the British, had never taught these skilled labour on the art of making a decision. All the important decisions in Hong Kong before 1997 were made by the British and the Hong Kong elites were merely executing orders by the British. After Hong Kong became part of China in 1997, these local elites became governor and senior officials but they lacked the skill of making decision as they did not have a clue on it. It would have been fine if there had been nothing went wrong as these ruling skilled labour could simply follow the standards and procedures. If there had been anything unexpected, this new ruling class would not have the knowledge and experience to face it as they could not find solutions from standards and procedures. The past 10 years shows that without the master, these servants could make a mess of Hong Kong.

Even nowadays - 10 years after 1997, universities and colleges in Hong Kong are still the same: keen on producing skilled labour but now they are for businesses and it is encouraged by the government. Finance, Tourism, Logistics, these are the "trends" in Hong Kong so many related programs and courses are available. The problem is - when these trends are over, how can these skilled labour survive? A university should educate one to know how to think rather than to become a model set by government or business sector. If our universities in Hong Kong can make their students acquire the skills of independent thinking, they will have the ability to decide their future and the future of Hong Kong; not just following orders from the ruling class.

For those who do not want their children to become skilled labour, including many senior officials in Hong Kong, they send their children abroad. They want their children to receive education, not vocational training.

When we look at our youngsters, we know that using mother tongue is the best way for them to acquire knowledge (not language) but many of us resist it. Why? Because we are worrying about their future. English is the international language and most universities in Hong Kong claim that English is the medium of teaching. Without a moderate English standard it is difficult for a student in Hong Kong to learn his subjects in university, no matter local or overseas. The dilemma is that many students in Hong Kong are not capable to acquire knowledge in their second language, such as History, Economics, and Physics. I still remember that when I started my secondary school, all subjects except Chinese and Chinese History were in English but my primary school was a Chinese medium school so I had a hard time to learn other subjects and I had a feeling of failure as I did not understand the content of most subjects. How can we resolve this dilemma?