It would be a pity, even an educational tragedy, if a highly intelligent individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or dyslexia were unable to compete with other normal candidates in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education examination simply because of his or her poor communication and language skills. With the exception of talented students with ASD, most students with ASD or dyslexia find it difficult to deal with normal language proficiency tests. Fortunately for those learners with special educational needs (SEN learners), one of the development blueprints laid down by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his second Policy Address unveiled in October is to develop universities of applied sciences (UASs), which are designed to accommodate the educational needs of those who are good at technical subjects but weak in language skills.
While neurodiversity is an alien concept in Hong Kong, neurodiverse employees have been warmly received by some multinational corporations and tech companies in Silicon Valley in the United States. The achievements of some neurodiverse people have earned deep respect and sent a chill through conservative educationalists. We must bear in mind that individuals with ASD have transformed our world. Temple Grandin made animal slaughterhouses more humane, and Alan Turing invented the computer. Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and many others have been posthumously diagnosed with ASD.
Besides being posthumously diagnosed with ASD, Einstein also suffered from dyslexia. As a child, he showed signs of weakness in speech and verbal development. Other famous people with dyslexia include Pablo Picasso, Richard Branson and George Washington. Many famous people in the entertainment industry suffer from dyslexia — Jennifer Aniston is but one example.
Those with ASD exhibit deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts. While more talented students with ASD usually display many grade-appropriate vocabulary and grammatical skills, some less talented students with ASD often struggle to put words into grammatical sentences.
Nor can the latter always understand sentences spoken by others. As a result, students with ASD and dyslexia perform badly in normal language tests. Since language proficiency is the main determinant of school success, Hong Kong’s tertiary education has not cast an inclusive net for these two groups of SEN learners.
It’s informative to look at the poor academic performance of low achievers through the lens of the analytical framework provided by Robert J Sternberg, a well-known psychologist. Because of space constraints, we cannot explain Stenberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence in detail. According to Sternberg, there are three types of intelligence; namely, academic or analytic, practical, and creative intelligence.
An individual who is strong in analytic intelligence is not necessarily strong in practical or creative intelligence. But low-level intelligence tests only reflect the processing components that are significant in analytic intelligence. This may explain why some creative entrepreneurs and artists are low achievers in our educational system.
Thinking creatively, our chief executive deserves great credit for establishing the UAS as an alternative platform for technically competent individuals with ASD and dyslexia and low achievers to enroll in degree courses. We strongly support this proposal because Hong Kong should keep these neurodiverse people and low achievers on our radar screen in order to enable the talent net to reach out to a wider spectrum of the population. Our think tank has adopted a pro-neurodiversity policy to recruit researchers.
It is reported that the UAS would enroll students not solely based on academic performance but also work experience. It aims at producing work-ready graduates. The educational institutions under the UAS would position themselves differently from academic universities. The UAS will emphasize career articulation and internships. The curriculum design should be joined by industries at the initial stage and suit employment market requirements.
We hope the above proposals, together with enhanced measures to promote national security education, will raise national consciousness among our students and boost their “cultural vaccination” against the spiritual virus spread by the cognitive warriors
In the following discussion, we will also examine the chief executive’s proposals to strengthen patriotic and national security education in Hong Kong. There is authority for saying that patriotic education has been woven into the curriculum of nearly all nations around the world. Sight must not be lost of how patriotic education can be utilized to foster a stronger sense of cultural confidence among our students. National security education is also a shield to guard against attacks launched by cognitive warriors from hostile countries.
According to some Chinese scholars, patriotism refers to the cognitive identification, collective affinity and the altruistic behavior for the welfare of a certain community within a geographical scope. It includes political and cultural identity, attachment to the country and the practical action of participating in residents’ activities.
Lee made several proposals to promote patriotic education in Hong Kong in his Policy Address. These include: establishing a working group on patriotic education, setting up a museum to showcase national development and achievements, converting the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defense into the Hong Kong Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defense, establishing the Chinese Culture Promotion Office, and organizing Chinese culture festivals on a regular basis. Although it is premature at this stage to assess the effectiveness of these proposals, we are sure that they are steps in the right direction.
We should bear in mind that soft power projection by our main competitor has provided fertile soil for hostile cognitive warriors to establish a strong foothold in the city. Of far greater concern are the threats posed by their offensive campaigns to defame Hong Kong and discredit Chinese culture and the ideology of the Communist Party of China. We hope the above proposals, together with enhanced measures to promote national security education, will raise national consciousness among our students and boost their “cultural vaccination” against the spiritual virus spread by the cognitive warriors.
Lee also proposed raising post-secondary education to a higher level by doubling the admission quota of nonlocal students to government-funded post-secondary institutions. Some local students complain that this is unfair. But there is a positive side to this proposal. Turning Hong Kong into an international hub for post-secondary education would benefit our economy and help widen the global perspective of local students. Besides, full-time nonlocal students will be exempted from the restrictions on taking up part-time jobs to increase their incentive to stay for development after graduation. High on the agenda of the government is to attract more talents to work in Hong Kong. One of the factors of population growth is the inflow of migrants looking for greener pastures in the city.
Ting Fong-fong is the parent education director of Chinese Dream Think Tank, and formerly a senior lecturer at Jinan University and a lecturer of Caritas courses.
Kacee Ting Wong is a barrister, part-time researcher of Shenzhen University Hong Kong and Macao Basic Law Research Center, chairman of Chinese Dream Think Tank, and a district councilor.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
