According to “The Global Risks Report 2021” by the World Economic Forum, “Widespread Youth Disillusionment” and “Erosion of Societal Cohesion” are listed as the top ten dangers placing critical threat to the world. Hong Kong is no exception, overly exam-oriented school life, low interest in learning, disconnection between learning and living etc. put our teenagers in a world of complexity and uncertainties.

More and more K-12 schools in Hong Kong practice Service Learning through integrating meaningful community service with rigorous academic study and deep reflections to enrich students’ learning experience for achieving desired learning outcomes. However, SL and community service or voluntary service are often conflated in Hong Kong and hence is not widely implemented. Teachers also lack the knowledge and experiences to promote effective SL.

Teachers are the key to quality education. In this connection, the Foundation join hands with Keswick Foundation to support a three-year project entitled, “Capacity Building Scheme for Secondary School Teachers: Promoting Meaningful Social Engagement for Young People through Service-Learning” by Poly U. The project aims to promote “academic SL” in secondary schools through equipping teachers with essential attitudes, knowledge and skills, and ultimately promote meaningful social engagement for young people and enhance their academic learning. The project provides a SL educator certification course as well as an e-Resources library, providing evaluation and assessment tools, SL programs, evidence-based exemplars, lesson plans and manuals. For more information, please feel free to visit the project website.