The unfortunate news that 13 parents and a middleman were recently convicted and sentenced to up to 14 months for offering bribes when seeking their children’s admission to an English Schools Foundation (ESF) kindergarten highlighted the importance of educating parents and would-be parents about how to bring up happy and successful children.
Declining fertility is a big issue in many countries. Aging populations owe their origin to improved food security, advancements in healthcare, education, and increased awareness of the need for a healthy lifestyle, among others. Declining fertility was initially interpreted as preference for quality rather than quantity: Parents want to have fewer children so they can better provide for all their needs to develop better. However, these days many young people prefer not to have children, and we need to ask why.
According to data from the World Bank, the United States’ fertility rate in 2024 was 1.6265. South Korea and Japan stood at 0.748 and 1.15 respectively. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has a birth rate slightly higher than South Korea at 0.841. These fertility rates are all well below the replacement-level fertility rate, that is, the overall fertility rate needed to keep the population size stable over time, without migration, which stands at around 2.1. This means a woman needs to give birth to 2.1 children in her lifetime on average, to avoid a secular decline in a country’s population.
ESF school fees are not the highest among international schools. But at HK$124,900 ($15,940) a year in 2025-26, most families in Hong Kong will find such fees hard to afford. Yet parents do not need to pay such high fees, because there are many kindergartens in Hong Kong that are much more affordable. Every year, the Education Bureau (EDB) publishes the updated basic information on about 970 kindergartens in Hong Kong, including those that have joined the Kindergarten Education Scheme in the 2025-26 school year, the approved school fees of all kindergartens, the numbers and overall professional qualifications of the principals and teaching staff, enrolment, teacher-to-pupil ratio, curriculum details, reference prices of major education items being sold, application fees, registration fees, and information on application for admission. Given Hong Kong’s falling birth rate, it is not hard to get a place in a kindergarten. The fact that some parents risk breaking the law to gain admission to an ESF kindergarten suggests that they are suffering from considerable anxiety. There is little doubt that such parents would unwittingly pass their anxiety to their children. Children living in an atmosphere of anxiety will not find happiness.
Parents: Instead of worrying about your children falling behind others, please simply do what you can to help your children realize their dreams
I and my co-authors recently published an article in a Springer Nature journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life. Using data from Hong Kong and Shenzhen, we showed that life education that promotes LIFE — Love, Insight (wisdom or an ability to know priorities and means and ends, considered to be the key to loving effectively), Fortitude (gained from learning from mistakes and going through tough times), and Engagement (living out love with wisdom day by day) — significantly and noticeably enhance the student’s sense that life is worth living. The positive effect of family life education is found to be much more pronounced than school life education. Unexpectedly, family life education will reduce the probability of one’s being bullied on campus.
We found that neijuan, or involution, could be the reason why schoolchildren in Shenzhen have a much lower rating for life worth living, which is reflected in much smaller coefficients on things like free time and pocket money in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong. Neijuan refers to excessive competition that makes schoolchildren very tired and frustrated, losing a sense of self-actualization. Excessive competition makes one focus on getting ahead of others rather than self-actualization. If parents are excessively concerned about competition, they lose sight of self-actualization. In their anxiety, moreover, they cross the line and engage in dishonesty. This will then set a bad example for their children. If their children imitate them, cross the line, and are eventually convicted of a crime, their lives could be ruined.
On April 16, the EDB announced the Values Education Curriculum Framework (2026). Values education importantly provides a sense of orientation or direction, so one will never go astray. This sense of direction is all about self-actualization, which in turn is about realizing the potential within each person. The most important value must be LIFE and giving life the best chance to realize its potential.
Parents: Instead of worrying about your children falling behind others, please simply do what you can to help your children realize their dreams. It is remarkable that Jensen Huang, who started Nvidia, never asked his daughter to study engineering. Eventually, she earned a bachelor’s degree in business management with a focus on culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America in 2012. So let us worry less. Hong Kong’s fertility rate will then surely rise.
The author is an honorary research fellow at the Pan Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy Research Institute, Lingnan University, and an adjunct professor at the Academy for Applied Policy Studies and Education Futures, the Education University of Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
