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Letters | Civil servants over disabled teens: does Hong Kong have its priorities right?
- Using Shine Skills Centre site for civil service training would signal government apathy towards helping those with special needs
I am writing in response to the article, “Opposition to relocation of job training centre for disabled teenagers in Hong Kong snowballs as 800 join protest against plan” (November 18).
I believe the move by the government to redevelop the Shine Skills Centre site in Kwun Tong into a civil service academy is unwise. It also shows the government’s reluctance to care for young people with special needs.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in her recent policy address announced a project to redevelop the 118,000 square-foot site of the Shine Skills Centre, run by the Vocational Training Council. Certainly, such a college will be helpful for the future pillars of our government but, seen from another angle, it looks like the government is sacrificing the future of our disabled minors who already have to struggle with limited social and career opportunities.
Even though the government has subsequently sought to allay concerns, not everyone is convinced by the promise to find a more central site for the new vocational training centre. There are numerous other locations the government could choose for the civil service academy; for instance, legislator Ann Chiang Lai-wan has suggested that the academy be built on an outlying island.
Ironically, the government has chosen the worst possible location. Building a civil service academy and helping less-able youngsters to better integrate into our society are not mutually exclusive aims. Why is our government choosing to ruin their futures? Such acts signal our government’s reluctance to care for or help them.
Ken Yu, Tsuen Wan
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