People might not be born with the same level
of intelligence for learning, and hence with
different achievements (the Hamiltonian view1),
but should be equal in terms of political and
social rights and be given with equal opportunities
for the development of their own potential (the
Jeffersonian view2) (Sternberg, 2000).
The first aim of life-long education
is to circumscribe the Hamiltonian view and allow
those people with a will to go on their pursuit
of learning at a pace that suits their own development.
There is no loser if you go on, but even a high
achiever with great intelligence will fall behind
if life-long learning is neglected. The rapidly
changing society quickly diminishes the differences
owing to people's variance of past achievement,
and life-long learning makes the competition among
people ever going on. As a key provider of life-long
education in Hong Kong, especially in the field
of education and training, we foster the development
of our society by providing more and more quality
learning opportunities so that people can have
better choices for development that suit their
different potential. The development of the culture
of life-long learning for the betterment of the
community is greatly enhanced. The worldwide development
of free trade and the Tiebout's theory of leaving
the consumption decision entirely in the hands
of consumers (Hatton, 1997) go well with the quality
assurance concept as advocated by Windham (1988)
that the survival of quality products/services
is determined by consumers. This ensures that
self-funding programmes and services are constantly
under the stringent scrutiny of the free market.
The remarkable achievement of the
School in the past three years has laid down a
good and firm foundation for further development
and expansion of our scope of provision of education
opportunities and services. We will go on to work
in line with the mission of the Institute to foster
a culture of life-long learning in Hong Kong,
and together with the Government for the betterment
of the Hong Kong society.
Director of School of Continuing
and Professional Education
N.B.:
1 Alexander Hamilton (1755 - 1804), the first
Secretary of the Treasury of USA
2 Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), the third
President of USA
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