Re-read the article entitled “A call to action : reclaiming our competitive advantage” by Frank Gornick published in the Community College Journal December 2005/January 2006 this morning.
Community College in United States was established in facing the society's need for skilled labour force for transformation from manufacturing-based industry to the knowledge-based economy in the 1940s. President Truman envisioned the needs and thereafter commissioned the Higher Education for American Democracy in 1947. With its sustained development in the previous 50 years, the role of Community Colleges has made significant contribution on the development of economy as well as human resources of the nation. The participation rate for College education raised from 8% in 1940 to 65% today.
While expertise convened the “Hundred Year Bloom”in southwest California before the end of 2005, I would love to see this kind of strategic gathering be in placed in Hong Kong. The system of Community College is still going through struggles at its early stage of development. As one of the little tigers in Asia, Hong Kong emerged business into the return of education. Most people here in Hong Kong put too much the emphasis on the direct return of an academic qualification. It is sad to see that people regard this new education framework as the stepping stone for the failure in HKALE (University Entrance examination) in accessing to University. If President Truman still alive, I wonder how he will think about this situation? Will the international renowned education gurus mourn for the current development of Community College in Hong Kong? Being a member in the sector for years, I believe it worth all of us to reflect on.
Education is only an individual pursuit but a nation's asset, I remain.
24 July 2006
Jennfier Fung-yee LEE is currently College Lecturer in The Community College of Lingnan University, Hong Kong. She has worked as Administrative Officer in University department before joining the external programmes in 2000. With diverse experience in University as administrator, lecturer as well as hostel staff member, she loves interacting with wide array of students from Project Yijin, Foundation Diploma, Associate degree, undergraduates up to postgraduates. She resides on University campus for more than 10 years and concurrently serving as Senior Hostel Tutor for University students.
2 comments:
This is the comment I received from Prof Kai-ming CHENG and he would like me to post them here :
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Thanks for sharing this with me. Briefly, I have four points:
· This is a culture where education is ever a means of upward social mobility. The civil examination (keju) in ancient China was only a means for selection people into the officialdom, and hence is not a means of learning knowledge and skills. The system has changed, the philosophy sustains. Hence, I would not feel too nervous if students who go for CC are only thinking of transferring to universities (“transfer is the term used in US).
· In reality, indeed quite a few of student go to universities after joining CC. The percentage varies from college to college. The highest is more than 70% with around 47% in local universities. There are others where transfer rate is minimal. There, the students (and hence the media) think it is a deception. I think this is a created perception and is not helpful. Never in the world, be it ancient China or modern US, there was any promise for transfer to university study. The actual transfer rate in US, on average, is only 9%. The colleges should not have made false promises and the media should have a better understanhding of the reality.
· Hence, while I do think it is nothing wrong for the student to aspire for transfer when they do to CC, they should also be prepared to have other routes of their career lives. Here, both the colleges and the students have to prepare for these second or third routes. The recent move o the Government to promote CC to employers seems to be an act in that direction, but much is to be desired.
· Nonetheless, I would think that CC is a very new thing in HK and we should give it more time in order to survive. It is certainly a good way of extending young people’s opportunities of formal education beyond secondary schools, but it take time for the society to work out where CC could place its graduates. It also take time for the employers and society at large to understand the nature of CCs and the capacity of its graduates. Before long, just for example, there should be graduates from CC who have learnt to start their own free-lancing activities, either as a business or as an NGO.
I you wish, you could include my comments on our blog.
Kai-ming
Hi Jen, I dunno how I got here but pretty interesting to read about stuff you have here.
Even though I haven't been through Hong Kong's college education, I have a touch of it as many of my fellows are doing this.
Everything that works in Hong Kong I would say it's pretty much related to business. If I didn't leave HK for good I wouldn't have figured out my way either. Probably I would end up doing some irrelevant stuff and getting irrelevant jobs just like many of my HK friends do.
Being in such a tiny place it's a difficult thing for one to envision more than life at hand. Perhaps one has a dream but there are NOTHING out there telling them to go, and there's no assurance for a "future". Indeed, very few people would like to take the risk (or have the ability to).
And in reality I know there are a handful of students who went to CC in HK and are not allowed to transfer because they're not the top dogs. Prf Cheng suggested that for CC in the States, there are actually a very little portion of student transferred (and that's me), and it's only because many other students just do not want to do so. Yet in HK, I think the proportion of students who are hungry for a degree program and such is much bigger compare to the US. The abundance vs inadequacy is the problem of which we can't set our hands on.
And I think more importantly, people have to realize that education doesn't equal to wealth or anything that assures life. If one doesn't gain from the education process it doesn't make a difference.
May I ask what's your alma mata? As I thought you mentioned about CA... this is where I'm from. =)
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