Two secondary school students compete at the Quixo board game during a China Taiping Cup match in Hong Kong last year. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Many Hong Kong parents are known to be obsessed with giving their children a head start in life, or, in “parent’s speak”, gaining the advantage at the starting line.

Parents who believe in that, and there are many, would of course spare no effort and cash to enroll their children in what they consider to be “exclusive” schools from kindergarten to senior highs. They all go after one reward: good grades in the college entrance exams, so that their children can go to the universities of their choice.

In this paper chase, the parents may have missed what could be much more important to the future of their children than a college degree, and that is preparation for the jobs of the future.

Educators in some developed economies questioned whether the schools and universities that are so good at imparting knowledge into students are giving them enough training and initiative to handle the jobs that don’t even exist now. A report by the World Economic Forum says that 65 percent of the children entering primary school in 2017 will have jobs that do not yet exist and for which their education will fail to prepare them, according to a CNN story.

The widely billed Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to reshape the workplace by artificial intelligence, robotics and other technology advances about which we can only guess. Heather McGowan, a future work strategist, told CNN: “The foundation knowledge of the future is your own ability to learn and adapt, because if you don’t, your career will come to a screeching halt after a couple of years.”

The Hong Kong education system, which has been widely criticized for placing too much attention to rote learning, is particularly ill-equipped to teaching students how to think independently — a prerequisite for success in the future job market. Parent obsessed with giving their children a head start in life may want to as if they are in reality closing their children’s minds in the pursuit of good grades by spending too much time on homework.

They have lost the ability to learn for themselves. That’s going to be a huge handicap in competing in the world of the future.