Children need more fun, seminar told
Confident young people are key to the competitive workforce HK needs, say experts

Chandran Nair tells the seminar that Hong Kong's children are unable to articulate their views and need to experience the rough and tumble of growing up.
SCMP photo by Edward Wong

By Polly Hui
More play, less work makes for more talented children, according to speakers at a seminar on cultivating and attracting talent.

Participants at "The Face of Hong Kong's Future Workforce" seminar came up with a list of ideas on how the education system should be shaped to meet the demands of the economy.

To create a workforce that was globally competitive, speaker Chandran Nair, founder and chief executive of the Asia-based think-tank Global Institute For Tomorrow, proposed school hours for children aged seven to 12 be limited, and that they be allowed to spend at least an hour a day in team sports.

"Kids should be out there playing sports, falling, breaking legs and getting a few infections," Mr Nair said.

Mr Nair said most Hong Kong students lacked confidence and could not articulate their views.

As many as 95 per cent of local university graduates failed his firm's oral and written tests.

Seminar participants also pointed to the need to increase school places for children of overseas professionals.

Anton Eilers, regional residential director of Colliers International, said Hong Kong was losing out on attracting international talent because of its squeezed school system.

His company handles inquiries from overseas professionals looking to move to Hong Kong. But, he said, every month, scores of them decided against relocating because they could not find school places for their children.

Mr Eilers said many of the international schools wanted to expand, but had difficulty in acquiring land from the government.

Speakers including Mr Nair said parents should stop outsourcing their responsibilities to the government, schools and their maids.

Rachel Cartland, former assistant director of social security, who was among the audience yesterday, agreed with Mr Nair.

"Families have outsourced a lot of their responsibilities to schools," she said. "Every time something went wrong - be it the worsening trend of elderly abuse or students not creative and patriotic enough - the public blamed it all on schools and asked for more to be added to the curriculum."

Ms Cartland said her prescription for the overprotected youth was to send every university student overseas for a year "coping on his or her own, learning how to live and take initiative".

Speaker Mike Button, principal consultant (retirement and benefits practice) of Watson Wyatt, said Hong Kong needed to exercise flexibility in its retirement age policy in face of the longer life expectancy of its citizens.

He also argued that not enough had been done to tap the wealth of experience and knowledge of the elderly.

The seminar was jointly organised by the South China Morning Post and University of Hong Kong and supported by the Citigroup Foundation.

Going beyond the classroom
* Ideas for cultivating, tapping and attracting talent
* Send all university students overseas for a year
* Cut classroom hours, introduce more team sports for children
* Increase international school places
* Encourage alternative school systems and curriculums
* Get parents to stop outsourcing their responsibilities to schools and government
* Enact anti-age-discrimination law
* Have a flexible policy on retirement age