The disparity between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong is severe. The "Hong Kong Poverty Report" released by Oxfam recently (October 5) showed that the median monthly income of the richest households reached 127,600 yuan, but the poorest households were only 2,700 yuan, a difference of 47 yuan. times.
The new government does have intentions to improve, for example, the establishment of the "Action Group for Students from Disadvantaged Groups to Get Rid of Intergenerational Poverty" headed by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-kee, and the launch of the "Co-creation "Teen" project, hoping to help poor students develop Broad vision and set future development goals.
Some people praised the plan as "greatly beneficial", while others criticized the authorities for "making great efforts"—how should we understand the government's "intent"?
Are the authorities "willing to do stupid things"?
The fourth in-depth report on "Intergenerational Poverty"
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-kee, personally led the "Action Group for Students from Disadvantaged Groups to Get Rid of Intergenerational Poverty", and launched the "Co-creation 'Teen' Project", hoping to help poor students broaden their horizons and set future development goals.
(Photo by Liang Pengwei)
Government MPs applauded
"Doing well or not doing it", "Doing is a good thing of course", "Concept is good"... Huang Hong, author of "Infinite Hope: An Analysis of Hong Kong's Poverty Problem", has published "How to formulate Lin Jingwen from "Social Policies for Reducing Intergenerational Poverty", and Zhou Keili, who has published over 100 papers in international academic journals - these three senior sociologists were interviewed by "Hong Kong 01" earlier. When the important prescription "Co-Creation "Teen" plan" was prescribed, they all expressed "affirmation" to the government's work, but there were some reservations in the affirmation.
Less than a week after taking office on July 1, Chief Executive Li Jiachao announced on July 6 the establishment of the "Vulnerable Students Action Team to Get Rid of Intergenerational Poverty" headed by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-kee. Poverty alleviation.
A month and a half later, Chen Guoji announced that the government, business and the public will launch a one-year "Co-creation" Teen program", hoping to benefit 2,000 junior high school students from disadvantaged families, helping them broaden their horizons, strengthen their self-confidence, establish goals, and strive to be higher.
"What we pay more attention to is not technical issues, but ideological issues." Chen Guoji emphasized at the press conference that the government had discussed with the social welfare and academic circles and believed that the plan was "very important for helping students from disadvantaged families". Useful.” The plan covers three elements: mentoring, personal development planning, and financial support
(see the table below).
A training course will be provided for mentors to master the role of mentors, understand the characteristics of young people, what problems they face, and how to communicate with them. On the other hand, it also requires students to complete compulsory courses on life planning, ability improvement (self-knowledge, communication skills and problem-solving skills), financial concepts and skills activities, as well as elective courses including Chinese and English language ability improvement, interest cultivation , basic training in social etiquette, subject selection strategies, and physical and mental health guidance and support.
After the program ends, an "Alumni Association" will be established to maintain and expand the social network and mutual support established between students and friends.
The program closed last Friday (September 28).
When the Legislative Council's Subcommittee on Reform of Poverty Alleviation Policies and Strategies held a meeting last Wednesday (September 26) to review the current poverty alleviation policies, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Sun Yuk-han also said that the plan is the first step in alleviating intergenerational poverty, and that the teachers and students The registration situation is ideal, and many successful people from large-scale enterprises and organizations take the initiative to wave.
The Legislative Council members present at the meeting, despite their concerns, also unanimously agreed with the government's approach.
Some strongly criticized the authorities for "a whole bunch of children's matching funds", which could not effectively address "intergenerational poverty".
The society questioned the big dragon and the phoenix
However, the society has not "singed well". For example, some people have strongly criticized the authorities for just "playing big dragons and phoenixes", "selling dog meat with sheep's heads", "total children matching funds", and cannot effectively solve "intergenerational poverty". ".
In all fairness, there is no need for the government to intervene at all.
In fact, poverty absolutely affects children's learning, mood, and character.
This is not only related to the lack of family resources, parenting education, and social network, but also affected by family culture.
For example, parents with higher education levels and higher incomes naturally have more resources, time and ability to nurture the next generation.
On the contrary, poor parents run around for three meals a day, have no time to take care of their children, and have no resources to provide their children with additional educational materials and tutoring, let alone participate in extracurricular activities; Lack of proper support; it may also be based on lack of self-worth, confidence and ability, and some urgent requirements and expectations are generated in the discipline, and the subsequent methods of beating and scolding also increase accordingly, thus affecting the child's self-image and character; more likely because of interpersonal relationships The relationship is narrow, the social network is homogenized, and the information and ways to provide financial support and find jobs are limited.
Poor parents face problems such as lack of time, resources, ability, lack of educational methods, lack of social networks, etc., which run through their children's growth and unknowingly affect their learning performance, emotional control and character building.
According to the "Survey and Research Report on CSSA and Non-CSSA Children" published by the Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong in 2000 and the "2004 Survey on the Psychological Quality of CSSA Children" in 2004, the personality and emotional characteristics of some CSSA children include: more Negative emotions, low self-esteem, social anxiety, personality tendencies to neuroticism, poor resilience, weak sense of competence and interpersonal relationships.
Even when they grow up, they are more likely to fall into the endless cycle of intergenerational poverty and continue the poor life of their parents.
Some studies suggest that the most direct way to help children out of poverty is to provide resources, provide parenting education and expand social networks.
The significance of the prescription of the "Co-creation TEEN Program" is to "intervene" and "support" the grassroots children living in subdivided housing from these three aspects: First, directly subsidize families 10,000 yuan, and try to cultivate students' correct financial management concept. ; Second, provide parenting education for poor parents to help them learn parenting, education, communication knowledge and skills for their children, and appropriate educational concepts; Matchmaking enables students’ families to have a larger social network, from which they can obtain information, resources and opportunities, and broaden their horizons.
The impact of poverty on children is from least to greatest.
This is both related to the lack of family resources, parenting education, and social networks.
(Xinhua News Agency)
Early intervention improves outcomes
However, although the government should intervene in tackling the problem of child poverty, as far as the “Co-creation TEEN Project” is concerned, Zhou Keili, Chair Professor of Social Policy and Associate Vice-President of the Education University of Hong Kong, Huang Hong and Ming, Associate Professor of the Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong All three scholars raised some doubts, said Lin Jingwen, a professor at the School of Social Sciences at IAI.
First, it is too late to plan to "intervene", and the best time to help is when the child is in kindergarten.
Zhou Keili pointed out that the biggest problem with the plan is that it was done too late: "Many foreign studies have found that poverty has the greatest impact on children before the age of 5, when children's brain development is the fastest."
Craig Ramey, a research professor at the Department of Human Development at Virginia Tech College of Arts and Sciences, published "Randomized Manipulation of Early Cognitive Experience Impacts Adult" in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on May 1 last year. Brain Structure), found the brain and intelligence-related regions of the infant group receiving early education, including cerebral cortex, left inferior frontal gyrus and left superior temporal gyrus related to language ability, right inferior frontal gyrus related to cognition, bilateral anterior buckle With cortex, are larger.
The reason why the government should intervene at the age of 5 or before is that it is a critical period for brain development, which not only directly affects personality, values and culture, but also directly affects intellectual development, language ability and emotional development.
Zhou Jili described that the effectiveness and return of intervention at this time are higher. "Foreign studies have found that the return may be 10% higher than the average return of the stock market."
In this regard, Deng Fei, a member of the Legislative Council Election Committee, also proposed at the above-mentioned committee meeting that the government's target of Secondary 1 to Secondary 3 is to "not go up and down" - because the top is the key to "advance to higher education and employment", and the bottom is the formation of values. An important period, but the age group targeted by the plan falls precisely in the "rebellious period" between the two, and he is worried that the plan has not been as effective as it should be.
Zhou Jili believes that the "intervention" time point should be "5 years old or before", which is a critical period for brain development, not only in terms of personality, values and culture, but also directly affects the development of intelligence, language ability and emotion.
(file picture)
The plan is too short and the amount is too small
Lin Jingwen also believes that after experiencing the growth stage of primary and secondary schools, the characters of students have basically been formed, so the plan should start from primary school.
In addition, she believes that the plan of 10,000 yuan a year is very limited for grassroots families and students.
Lin Jingwen mentioned the reference object of the "Co-creation "Teen" Program" - the "Mentorship Program" under the "Child Development Fund".
The government set up the Child Development Fund as early as 2008 to grant funds to NGOs or schools to implement mentorship programmes in the community and schools, assisting needy students aged 10 to 16 or primary four to four, recruit volunteer teachers for matching and establishing goals Save, and formulate and practice personal development plans; trainees save 200 yuan per month in the two-year plan, and can get a one-to-one matching reward from the enterprise and the government, with a maximum of 14,400 yuan for completing the plan.
As of 22 August 2022, a total of 25,000 children and young people in Hong Kong will benefit.
In Lin Jingwen's view, the two-year mentorship plan of 14,400 yuan is no different from the 10,000 yuan a year plan this time.
She explained that in terms of savings, the amount of more than 10,000 yuan is really limited, it may not be able to help poor families, and it may not be enough to pay for interest classes or further education expenses for poor children; in addition, it takes time for friends and children to get to know each other, but life goals, Self-image involves the establishment of values, and more needs to be guided by friends and teachers. It is obviously insufficient to rely on a few calls and meetings alone.
Lin Jingwen is worried, "Meeting several times a year, 'it's time to plant the seeds', good plans and opportunities are wasted like this."
The "Co-creation TEEN Project" team includes the Tokyo Olympic fencing champion Zhang Jialang, and the Olympic table tennis women's team bronze medalists Du Kaiqin, Su Huiyin and Li Haoqing.
(File photo/Photo by Gao Shiqi)
Unable to guarantee the quality of friends and teachers
However, what Lin Jingwen is most worried about is the quality of her friends and teachers.
Whether it is the "Co-creation 'Teen' Program" or the "Mentorship Program" under the "Child Development Fund", special emphasis is placed on the way teachers and students get along, but in essence, two people from different worlds and different classes It is not easy for people to understand each other.
To build this "cross-class" bridge, Lin Jingwen reminded that the most important thing is to have a correct attitude and an appropriate method, to understand the students' living conditions and explore their abilities and resources, "Just being intentional is not enough. It may be trivial to the teacher, but the other person sees it as another world. It doesn't mean that I have you or nothing. When I am a teacher, I will teach you and I have a lot of things to give you. Rather, it is necessary to discover the students Existing capabilities, using all their resources.”
Like Professor Lin Jingwen, Huang Hong also questioned whether the successful people in the "Chuangming TEEN Project" understood the needs of poor students.
"In one mentorship program, a 4A-level accountant invited grassroots students to visit his office in Central with a sea view, and then told him that if you were admitted to a university, you would be able to work in an office with a sea view like mine. ." He said with a smile, "You still don't understand, what is the most lacking in his life or life?"
Lin Jingwen has repeatedly emphasized that in the "Co-creation TEEN Program", appropriate selection criteria, pre-matching training and regular reporting are necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the program.
However, from the meeting of the Legislative Council Committee on September 26, although many members of the Legislative Council were concerned about the quality of mentors and the criteria for selecting mentors, the bureau's answer did not relieve their doubts.
Zheng Yongshun of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong and Chen Peiliang of the election committee made it clear that successful people do not represent successful friends and teachers.
Ye Liu Shuyi, the convener of the Executive Council and the New Democracy Party, also questioned whether it was appropriate for the government to target companies and whether the trainees would accept successful people as friends and mentors.
Sun Yuhan just responded that there will be professionals who will conduct pre-exam training for friends and teachers.
Ho Chun-hsien from the fishing and agricultural sector also repeatedly asked about the selection criteria.
However, in addition to the implementation issues such as too late intervention, too little amount of money, and quality of mentors, the three scholars are most worried that the "Co-creation "Teen" program cannot address the essence of the problem of intergenerational poverty... .(to be continued)
Intergenerational Poverty 1｜The monthly income difference between the rich and the poor is 47 times, can children get rid of poverty by relying on "Co-creation Teen"