Opinion | How top scores are leading Hong Kong’s brightest down narrow path
Hong Kong would benefit from a philosophy that grants students the freedom to learn, fail and grow without fear of ruining their future
There is also a perverse logic at work: when students achieve top scores, they gravitate towards programmes demanding those very scores for entry. This supply-and-demand mismatch could cause a split between test-taking capability and genuine interest. Academic excellence becomes its own trap.
For a city attempting to reinvent itself, such talent concentration in one field is a strategic miscalculation. To be clear, this is not to diminish the nobility of the medical profession or discount the genuine passion some have for it. However, the opportunity cost is immense when potential entrepreneurs and creative minds default to vocational safety nets instead of pursuing ventures that could drive the city’s transformation.
At issue is our educational ethos. From infancy, Hong Kong’s students are locked into a relentless race for academic achievement. Academic performance has become a crude arbiter of human potential. University, the final stage before adulthood, should be a time for exploration and discovery. Yet even here, the pressure to specialise early and earn top grades robs students of the opportunity to explore.