Disrespectful Hong Kong students a disgrace

A trait of Chinese parents everywhere is their determination to provide their children with the best education they can afford. But for the huge numbers of refugee families who poured across the border from China in the 1950s and 1960s, education for their sons and daughters was just a dream, crammed as they were into squalid squatter settlements dotting hillsides on either side of the harbour.

Eventually relief came in the shape of government-funded resettlement estates. Better still, they also fulfilled parents' dreams by providing makeshift schools for their children - built on the rooftops of the five- or six-storey resettlement blocks.

Lacking air-conditioning, they were hot and muggy in summer and desperately cold in winter. Primitive? Indeed - but both parents and children cherished them for the learning they provided.

And, in time, those squatter families, especially the children, provided the muscle, sweat and ingenuity that helped to create the Hong Kong success story. Prosperity enabled Hong Kong to modernise both its infrastructure and its educational facilities, such as new universities. But the catch about university education was that while many aspired to it, few could afford it.

So the government sensibly introduced a student loan scheme to ensure that no eligible student would be denied tertiary education.

Over the decades, the scheme has been extended to include non-means-tested loans, deferral of tuition fees, introduction of grants, student travel subsidies and even a system of appeals if loans are rejected.

Thanks to this scheme, tens of thousands of Hong Kong parents have been able to reach the pinnacle of their hopes for their sons or daughters, as they watch them receive their degree. That degree will be a passport to a successful career and a happy, prosperous life.