EDUCATION IN HONG KONG - why is it failing and how can it be improved?

This is some open space for an exchange of opinion on questions that I find important to me, and perhaps to you - and invite your opinions for my edification. It's often said that learning is not really about getting answers, but about asking the right question - thats a good starting point heh?
This will hopefully be a forum and could you please leave your views here

FIRST TOPIC:
HOW DO WE IMPROVE THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF HONG KONG? WHAT MAKES A GOOD EDUCATION SYSTEM?

This is something that has been bothering me for a while, and I'd really like to do something about it. In order to do that, I'm trying to understand the problem better and want to pick your brains.
There're many problems that worry me, but the central theme is that the system is failing most young people in Hong Kong because the education isn't really education.
This is, obviously, based on my assumption about what education should ideally be - and I welcome different opinions. (In fact i'm making a fairly moderate proposition - education should actually help students to learn and develop themselves)
1. People don't genuinely learn very much in schools, whether good schools or shit schools. In general, good schools only focus on grades and students try very hard to get the grades; there's a gap between the grades and the students' real ability. When society only focuses on the end result and ignores the real point behind the end result, we lose our directions and forget the real meaning of education and examinations. We are all familiar with the theory about learning not ONLY for the sake of exam results, so i won't labour on that point. But my point is that people blindly pursue grades at the expense of their own intellectual development.
How has this demonstrated itself? Basically i hate this tutorial madness phenomenon - people all opt for the easy way and get dummies notes from their colleges, and get good grades based on those notes. I personally also did benefit from those notes (laughs), but that's really sad because we assume we can't think and read and make notes for ourselves and have to be spoonfed. And after exams and some regurgitation exercise, we forget most of what we learnt in these years. Some people say it's the soft skills we've learnt that count for the rest of our lives, but i think its fairly defeatist to take it for granted that the knowledge acquired can just fly away.
That's already for the students who actually care about their own education. They sadly haven't found the right way to do it (not through their own fault, but mainly through the whole culture within society). Some people might know what i'm coming on to now - that's the sadness of the teaching of English in most schools in hong kong. People don't see languages as tools for communication in daily life, but isolated in the exam context. ie people do grammar and exam drills and get As... but they cant actually speak English. How is this system helping students to learn? That's just NOT right!


2. I'd also like to say education in HK fails students because it fails to inspire and develop people's interests and dreams, and keep them alive when they develop further. This also means society lacks diversity in its range of talents and flourishing industries. It's very much society that's to blame I agree, because of the pressure of conformity and the lack of support in this existing economy with its direction of go banking and professionals... People see their jobs as jobs, and their interests and dreams are either forgotten or buried. They might like music, art, drama, sports or anything else, and are very good at that, but they can't go on to do it. There're too many examples around me and you.
When one takes a step back and asks why, I think there's something failing within the education system itself that does not provide students with that element of individuality and freedom to develop themselves, against the current of society.

The questions have been recurring in my mind for a while and i haven't quite come to a proper understanding, and I invite you all to tell me whether you think the system is failing, and why you think it is - what is wrong? I'd really like to know better what the problem is from as many perspectives as possible - one can only starts thinking of a solution by understanding the problems one is to tackle.

I've been trying to do some comparison with education systems abroad, but obviously haven't quite started, and know very little. I've only seen for myself the university education system here, and heard quite a lot about the public school system in England - the only meagre foreign experience i've got.
THere's one programme on BBC which is called 'Top of the class' - it was broadcast a while ago, but i found it very inspiring.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/6991288.stm
It basically presents some perspective on the education in Finland which focuses on equality, and some other elitist systems like public schools in England and Harvard University. They have different ways of achieving a good education (good in different ways) within the conditions of their own society.

I'm also looking to see more about successful examples to extrapolate something useful from foreign systems (not wholesale export because education is responsive to a certain culture - and that culture varies for different societies I think), but I think that will be a useful point of reference to inspire more thoughts. If you have any opinions about education systems in other places of the world, please leave your opinion as to 'what makes a good education system'.


Lastly, I guess this affects me quite a lot because I think both problems apply to me, and I have properly failed in both respects (not learning properly and not developing my interests and dreams). So this is from an insider's point of view in many respects too...
I'd also like to add that this is some preparation for starting a mini project on my part, so your views will count a lot in helping me (start and) implement it. THANKS!

I look forward to hearing from you all! LEAVE A MESSAGE PLEASE! If you have any experience to share, please do!