private or self‐financing CCS operators to undertake in‐service training, which strike resemblance to the “Employment Programme for the Middle‐aged”.
(5) EDUCATIONAL SERVICES
Overview
422. Educational services for older people may take either formal, informal or non‐formal format.
Older people’s participation in lifelong learning serves to enhance their adjustment to their transition from work to retirement, and to achieve active ageing. In Hong Kong, on the whole, educational services for older people are currently mostly offered by NGOs and academic institutes with governmental support, but not much from the private market. Most recently, the EC, in collaboration with the NGO sector, has taken more proactive strategy in promoting lifelong learning. The private sector plays a relatively minor and indirect role through providing financial support to NGOs. Overall, the number of seniors engaging in short‐term, informal or non‐formal learning is far greater than that enrolling in formal education.
423. Due to many historical reasons related to social development, education opportunities were not well‐developed during the 1930’s to 1950’s. Many of the current cohort of older people on average had relatively low level of educational attainment. In addition, many of the current cohorts of older people came from the Mainland when they were youths. The opportunity of attending school was slim especially for the women from villages.
424. Several decades on, the education level of the younger cohorts of older people has been improving throughout the years. According to the by‐census of 2006, the proportion of older people with no schooling/pre‐primary education for the younger cohort aged 65‐69 was 19.3%
in 2006, which was much lower than the 56.5% for older people aged 85 or above. On the other hand, the proportion with primary educational attainment or above was higher for the younger cohort. The same pattern was displayed for both older men and women. The average proportion of people aged 65 or above with no schooling or only pre‐primary education decreased from 43.7% in 1996 to 35.8% in 2006, whereas that with secondary and higher education increased considerably from 16.1% in 1996 to 25.0% in 2006. It can be expected that the educational attainment of future cohorts of older people will see even greater improvement (C&SD, HKSARG, 2007a).
The Government
425. The Government is not a direct provider of education services for the older people. It provides seed funding to NGOs in operating the centre‐based services that offer informal education opportunities to older people in the form of interest classes.
426. The Elderly Academy The EC, borrowing the experience of the University of Third Age (U3A) in Australia, initiated the Elderly Academy Scheme in 2007 with currently some 113 academies established in the primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions. Each academy can choose their operation mode. Generally, each course will charge a fee of $10‐$50 to the participants. A certificate would be given to the students at a graduation ceremony. The management committee is mainly consisted of members from parent teacher associations.
Some courses were linked to university courses (i.e. HKU, Open U, CityU, HKIEd, APIAS) and were properly accredited while some were interest classes. The programmes in universities allow the elderly to enrol the modules of undergraduate studies as non‐credit courses that they do not need to take part in any assessments, including assignments, tests and examinations. In 2010, there are more than 50,000 elderly students in Elderly Academy. The mean age is 67 ranging from 55‐96 years old. The education level varies as some of courses are interest/leisure classes while some are academic in nature.
427. Elderly radio‐broadcast learning institute The Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is a government department that provides radio programmes to the general public. The RTHK’s Channel No. 5, “A Power” embraces a series of elderly friendly programmes, ranging from foreign languages, health information, tips for daily‐life, current events in the community, to Hong Kong news, and etc. It is very popular among the elderly community.
The private sector
428. The private sector does not seem to have provided direct educational services or programmes for older people in Hong Kong. However, some corporations provide funding to support NGOs in operating the U3A.
The NGO Sector
429. Currently, the majority of learning opportunities for older people are offered by NGOs and academic institutions with government policy and financial support. The NGOs, e.g. the DECCs, the Community Centres, etc., are operating interest classes and other modes of informal and non‐formal learning. Recently, there are some emerging forms of elder learning, mainly delivered through the U3A, the Elder Academy and the like.
430. The U3A, HK The U3A was initiated by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services (HKCSS) and supported by the Hong Kong Electric. NGOs joining this project receive funding from the HK Electric via the HKCSS and operate various kinds of learning classes for older people.
431. Institute of the Third Age Established by Hong Kong Christian Service (HKCS), the institute aims to serve people aged 50 or above in the community to develop their potentials ranging from language, spoken language, health knowledge, to practical skills for daily life etc. Courses
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are credited with academic points, where certificates could be redeemed with a certain amount of points accumulated.
432. E‐learning The Cybersenior Network Development Association provides a website from which the older people can access free learning materials and learn several leisure programmes by themselves such as the method of Chinese character input, photo‐imaging and design, website production and animation, video‐making, work interface, Office, software application, and languages.
Appraisal on Education Services
433. Research has proved that lifelong learning for older people is conducive to promoting older people’s active ageing and enhancing their quality of life. Although the Government is not a direct provider of educational services to the older people, it has provided seed funding to educational institutions, ranging from primary, to secondary and tertiary levels; as well as NGOs, in providing informal and non‐formal learning programmes. It has also provided learning opportunities via radio broadcast.
434. The NGOs have provided informal education to older people with government financial support.
Most of these educational programmes are provided through the network of elderly centres in the community. However, the low fees charged by the NGOs and the interest classes offered may perhaps be catering to the needs of some specific groups of older people, while not adequately attending to the needs and aspirations of some other groups who might demand educational programmes pitched at a higher academic level and who can afford higher fees. The private business sector has not yet played any significant role in the provision of educational services but only serves as a funding provider.
435. Due to the relatively low computer literacy amongst the current cohort of older people, it is observed that online learning as practiced in the western countries is not prevalent in Hong Kong.
Actually, the government has long been making effort to enhance the awareness and knowledge of the elderly on information technology. For instance, the Information Technology Service Department set up the programme named “IT Awareness Programme for the Elderly” providing free IT courses to elders aged 60 or above in 2001. More recently, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) have invited elderly services agencies to join the “eElderly Digital Navigation Centres” to support elders to learn about computer and internet (OGCIO, 2010). Also, the Government has adopted the suggestion given of the HKCSS in setting up the Digital Solidarity Fund comprising of contributions from Government and the private sector to support the NGOs in promoting “digital inclusion”. However, there was only 10.6% of elders aged 65 or above who have knowledge of using personal computer (C&SD, HKSARG, 2009c). There might be merits in further exploring the promotion of computer literacy, as well as computer usage by older people, so as to enable a more flexible and efficient mode of learning.
436. The Elder Academy, initiated and supported by the EC has basically set up a platform for promoting elder learning and inter‐generational inclusion via the network of primary, secondary and tertiary education institutes. It might be worthwhile to further inject more funds to the programme to support more older persons participate in such learning programmes.
437. Currently, the Government provides CEF to encourage people to engage in various modes of learning and continuing development. However, the age eligibility is set at 65, which might be not favourable to older people who are beyond this age limit in engaging in lifelong learning. It might be desirable to explore relaxing this age ceiling to enable older learners to participate in more educational activities.
(6) MEDICAL SERVICES
Overview
438. According to The government’s Task Force on Economic Challenges (TFEC), Hong Kong has the potential to developing medical services which are “of low risk and high return, minimizing the need for long stay in hospital”, and “developing the remote medical care or telemedicine services market, … setting up theme resort complexes, such as hi‐tech spa, aromatherapy, water sports and outdoor activities centres” (TFEC, 2009). These may well be the higher‐end market for users who can afford higher fees. However, in the examination of the potential for SHM in the medical/health aspect, it is necessary to investigate the various market segments with different levels of affordability amongst the older population.
439. Many elderly in Hong Kong suffer from a number of chronic illnesses. More than half of people aged 60 or above are reported to have hypertension and the details are stated in the Appendix VIII showing that there are demands on medical services from elderly group. According to the latest survey report (C&SD, HKSARG, 2010b), the rate of older people having diseases that required long‐term follow‐up by doctors and chronic health conditions as told by practitioners of Western medicine increased with age of person. The rate for those aged 65 and over increased from 50.7% in 2001 to 72.1% in 2010 (C&SD, HKSARG, 2002a; 2010b). A recent study also showed that Hong Kong female older adults (those aged 60 or above) tend to outlive Hong Kong male counterparts but are also more likely to suffer from a “double disadvantage”, namely more years of life with chronic morbidity and disability from 1996 to 2008. The recent increase in life expectancy in Hong Kong among older adults has been accompanied by a worsening health status, most significantly for females (Cheung & Yip, 2010).
440. The Hong Kong health system is a mixture of public and private sector health service providers.
On the whole, the public sector, through the HA, provides the majority of the hospital and outpatient clinics services, while the private sector takes up a significant role in providing