Education in Hong Kong
Encyclopedia : E : ED : EDU : Education in Hong Kong
|
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| This article is part of the Demographics of Hong Kong series
|
|
- 1 Overview
- 2 Pre-school / Nursery / Kindergarten education
- 3 Primary Education
- 4 Secondary Education
- 5 Tertiary education
- 6 Adult Education
- 7 Education for Newly Arrived Children (NAC)
- 7.1 Migration and Education in Hong Kong
- 7.1.0.1 “Transitional Adaptation”
- 7.1.0.2 “Instrumental Adaptation”
- 7.1.0.3 “Accommodative Adaptation”
- 7.1.0.4 “Bicultural Adaptation”
- 7.1.0.5 “Marginality”
- 8 Vocational, Post-secondary and Continuing Education
- 9 Vocational Training for People with Disabilities
- 10 Professional Teacher Preparation
- 11 Continuing Professional Development for Principals
- 12 List of schools
- 13 See also
Overview
In Hong Kong there is a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten education followed by a legal requirement of a six-year primary education and three-year junior secondary education, then the non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education and a two-year matriculation course leading to the Advanced Level examinations. There are also tertiary institutions offering various bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, other higher diplomas and associate degree courses.
Since the 1970s, a policy of nine-year free and compulsory education has been launched in Hong Kong. It includes six years of primary education and first three years of secondary education. Nowadays, with various subsidies provided, virtually every student studies at least 5 years in secondary schools.
There are basically three types of comprehensive schools in Hong Kong. First there are government schools, which are relatively rare; by far the most numerous are subsidized schools, run by charitable (often Christian) organizations with government funding. Most private schools are run by various private organizations; admissions are based more on academic merit than on financial ability.
Outside this system are the private international schools, which provide an alternative to the high-pressured mainstream education, in exchange for much higher tuition fees.
The mainstream education system in Hong Kong has often been described as a "Peking Duck-style education" (Chinese: 填鴨式教育), meaning that students are learning spoon-fed by being made to memorise books for examinations, that is, rote learning. Schools in Hong Kong typically have strict codes of discipline; practically all school students in Hong Kong wear uniforms.
Pre-school / Nursery / Kindergarten education
This is a non-compulsory, two - three year education before primary school. Since 1997, there have been various changes in the government's requirements of teaching staff and curriculum content. Most noticeably, has been the requirement that a ratio of staff must hold the proper qualifications in order to teach in kindergarten/preschool education and that Principals too, must hold relevant qualifications. Although kindergarten has always been viewed as the 'Cinderella' of the levels in education, these moves to improve the quality of the kindergarten service mean that children are able to receive a richer foundation in their learning than only the kind of child-minding service which some centres provided a few years ago. The Hong Kong government now fully acknowledges the importance of good early years education.
Kindergartens are registered with, and supervised by, the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB). In September 2002, 143 700 children were enrolled in 777 kindergartens. Existing government assistance to kindergartens includes rent and rates reimbursement to non-profit-making kindergartens, purpose-built kindergarten premises in public housing estates, the Kindergarten Subsidy Scheme, the remission of fees to needy parents through the Kindergarten Fee Remission Scheme and provision of training programmes for teachers and principals.
Some kindergartens employ a 'morning' and 'afternoon' class system while others, catering to full-time working mothers, provide a whole day service. While most kindergartens' academic calendars run from September to the end of June each year, it is common for many of them to continue into July or run summer camps.
Primary Education
Primary education in Hong Kong covers a wide curriculum. Core subjects include Chinese, English, and Mathematics. Other basic subjects include social studies, sciences (physics, chemistry and biology), and health education (or 'General Studies' which is a mixture of the aforementioned), music, physical education, and art and craft.
The teaching medium in most of the local schools is Chinese with English as a second language. 'International' schools make their teaching medium English, with some of them providing education in an alternative language as a second language. For example, the German Swiss International School makes German the second language, and the French International School, French.
A central allocation system (the Secondary School Places Allocation system) was introduced when the Academic Aptitude Test was cancelled in 2000. This is used to determine which students, who successfully completed primary school, are eligible to which secondary school. This is determined by the students' grades in three examinations (the second term in Primary Five, the first and second terms of Primary Six). The grades are then adjusted by the school's overall performance in the Academic Aptitude Test during 1997 to 1999 by a complex formula.
This determines what 'band' a student is in. As schools are now divided into three bands according to their academic standards (previously five bands), the top few children of each class are most likely to be in Band 1, and vice versa. There has been some debate whether this 'band system' is fair or discriminatory. The courts have already gone someway to help reduce the discriminatory effect by changing the five-band system to a three-band one.
Note however, that this band system does not apply to international schools. In September 2002, 432,500 children were enrolled in 699 government and aided primary schools.
Due to the drop in birth rate in recent years, many primary schools were forced to cut classes, cut teachers and even closed down. There has been a heated debate that one should seize this oppourtunity to promote small class teaching, which could mitigate the pressure of teachers cutting, class cutting and closing down of school, other than the obvious benefits to the students.
Secondary Education
Secondary education in Hong Kong is largely based on the English schooling system. Secondary school begins in the seventh year of formal education (kindergarten is excluded) after Primary Six, called Form One or Secondary One. The first three years in secondary schools are legally compulsory. Education in the first three years focus on general, instead of subject-focused, education.
In Form Four, most students of grammar schools have to choose between streams, namely "Science", "Arts" and "Commerce", depending on the school policy. Moreover, elective subjects are often offered, to broaden the students' horizon. In some schools, students will study vocational subjects. During Form Four and Five, they prepare for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE), which takes place after Form Five (equivalent to the UK's GCSEs or O-levels).
Students obtaining a satisfactory grade in the HKCEE will be promoted to Form Six (also known as Lower Sixth), and then prepare for the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (HKALE) (which acts as a de facto university entrance examination akin to the UK's GCE A-levels; though the percentage of candidates getting grade 'A' is much lower, usually around 3-4%, depending on individual subjects'), which are taken at the end of Form Seven (also known as Upper Sixth). In Hong Kong, attainments (Grade E or above) in the HKALE Chinese Language and Culture and Use of English subjects are prerequisites for university admissions, similar to the language requirement of Grades A*-C in GCSE English for university admissions in the UK. A central allocation system for places, called the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS), determines admission to tertiary institutions, largely based on the student's HKALE (to a less extent, that of HKCEE) results. In addition, students achieving more than 6 'A's in their HKCEEs are eligible to apply in the Early Admissions Scheme (EAS) that give them the chance of entering certain universities (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) upon the completion of Form Six, bypassing the HKALEs. There are around 400 students that meet the criteria each year. Dual Degree programme (HKU/HKUST), Global Business (HKUST), Medicine (CUHK/HKU), Pharmacy (CUHK), Law (HKU), are popular choices for EAS students.
International school students rarely take Hong Kong public exams; instead, they sit for international or foreign public exams such as the British GCSE, IGCSE and A-levels, the International Baccalaureate, the U.S. SATs, Abiturs, etc. They enter university through direct entry (also known as non-JUPAS), where they have to apply directly to different universities and submit applications for different subjects they wish to apply, as opposed to 1 application for all 8 local universities' offered subjects enjoyed by JUPAS applicants.
At the time of writing (August 2005), there continue to be heated discussion on a shift towards a more U.S.-styled education system, inter alia, changing secondary education from seven to six years, and university education from three years to four, as well as merging the two public exams HKCEE and HKALE into one public exam, and expanding school based assessment. Subject to approval, the proposed changes may take effect in a few years time.
In the OECD's international assessment of student performance, PISA, Hong Kong was one of the high scorers: in 2003 15-year-olds from Hong Kong came first in mathematics, and third in science, worldwide.
Tertiary education
With eight universities and several other tertiary institutions in just one city, tertiary education plays a key role in the education system of Hong Kong. The number of tertiary education graduates (as proposed by Hong Kong Government) would increase to 60% of Hong Kong's population by 2010. Therefore, the number of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, associate degree programmes and higher diploma programmes will be increased substantially in the coming years, barring any universities merging.
Of the 36660 students who attended the HKALE in 2003, 18049 (50.3%) of them fulfilled their general entry requirement to their respective university, usually a pass in Chinese Language and Culture and Use of English, plus another two A-level subjects (or one A-level subject and two AS-level subjects). Students who sit for the HKALE first time have a success rate of 75.8%. There are 19 different A-level and 20 different AS-level subjects available. Of the 39, 32 subjects can be answered in Chinese. (Source: Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority)
However, local universities provide only 14500 places for degree programmes, which means about 4000 students have to consider other options for their tertiary studies, for example, higher diploma programmes and associate degrees.
The duration of the associate degrees and higher diploma programmes is usually two years. Students can then either transfer to a full undergraduate degree programme (mostly lasting three to four years) in local universities or foreign universities if they meet certain academic requirements. They usually start from the first year, although sometimes they may be allowed to start from the second, if their course credits are transferrable. Thus, in a way, students who performed badly in the HKALEs are given a 'second chance'.
In the past, only a few local universities provided associate degree programmes. As the demand for these programmes increased, other organisations such as Po Leung Kuk, Caritas, etc. also began to provide associate degree programmes. The tution fees for these courses were also less than those for local universities, partially reflecting their standard. The cost of undergraduate, full-degree, full-time programmes tend to be around HK$40,000 - 50,000 a year, with the cost being higher for engineering and medical students. The reason for this relatively low cost is due to heavy government subsidisation.
The University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong are considered by most the top two universities in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, the standard in other universities is not low, and depends heavily on the subject studied. In particular, there has been strong competition from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), espcially in the fields of technology and business administration. Indeed, HKUST fared better than the Chinese University in the 2004 Times Educational Supplement rankings.
Postgraduate study is more exclusive. Since many Hong Kong students would choose to complete their postgraduate studies abroad, this has resulted in an insufficient number of local applicants, making the overall standard unimpressive. However, this is greatly compensated by students mainly from regional countries, who provide an unusually international outlook, compared to undergraduate education. After the handover of Hong Kong to People's Republic of China in 30th June 1997, students from Mainland China are ubiquitous in Hong Kong universities campuses. In fact, most non-Hong Kong postgraduate students in local universities come from Mainland China.
Being an international city, Hong Kong's tertiary institutions have many exchange student programmes with foreign universities, not just from the US and the UK, but also from many other countries, including Switzerland, Canada, Italy and Singapore, to name a few. As most exchange student programmes are one year long, this is the perfect way for students of other countries to broaden their horizons and enjoy and experience the vibrant life as well as all else that Hong Kong has to offer. Apart from the pollution, rarely has there been a complaint about life or the quality of education in this never-sleeping city.
Adult Education
The EMB has commissioned two non-profit-making school operators to provide evening secondary, primary, English courses and other diversified fee-charging programmes for persons aged 15 or above. Both operators have set up fee remission schemes to help the adult learners who are in need of financial assistance. Besides, EMB has also subvented non-government organisations to run various types of adult courses including those suitable for elderly and new arrivals, etc. In the 2003/04 school year, the total enrolment is 24 000. Adult education courses are also provided by the Vocational Training Council, various universities and private institutes.The Open University of Hong Kong (OpenU) is a university established for mature students. This is especially popular for the middle-aged because this allows many adults a chance to obtain a tertiary degree - something not as common several decades ago.
Education for Newly Arrived Children (NAC)
The EMB provides education and support services for the NAC, including newly arrived children from the Mainland, non-Chinese speaking children and returnee children. Non-fee-charging Induction Programmes of 60 hours each have been offered to NAC by non-government organisations under the subvention of the EMB. Besides, in order to strengthen support for schools with intake of NAC, a school-based support scheme grant is given to schools for them to flexibly design support programmes to cater for the specific needs of NAC. The EMB also provides a six-month full-time Initiation Programme, incorporating both academic and non-academic support services, for NAC before they are formally placed in the mainstream schools.Migration and Education in Hong Kong
Hei-Hang Hayes Tang (2002), a Hong Kong sociologist, constructed a typology of adaptations of NAC. His typology aims at delineating the different scenarios of assimilation, accommodation or alienation with regard to both the social structure and culture of the host society. The scenarios are namely Transitional Adaptation, Instrumental Adaptation, Accommodative Adaptation, Bicultural Adaptation, and Marginality
“Transitional Adaptation”
Transitional Adaptation is a relative easy and straightforward passage to a new home. Students who undergo “transitional adaptation” are those coming from a homeland with insignificant cultural differences from Hong Kong, and who receive sufficient social support from institutional agents in the host society. Examples are those who come from Cantonese-speaking origins having a culture similar to that of Hong Kong and who have established supportive networks with their peers or school. Linguistic and cultural proximity (to the mainstream Hong Kong culture) endows the students with cultural capital to build supportive networks with the institutional agents. These supportive networks, as social capital, in turn enable the activation of cultural capital which the students possess and facilitate the accumulation of further cultural capital. The accumulation of further cultural capital, for instance English, is conducive to academic advancement. Given the smooth adaptation to school life, the students hold a positive dual frame of reference. They generally view Hong Kong society, especially its opportunity structure, in a positive light. They perceive that Hong Kong provides more educational opportunities and occupational opportunities than their homeland does. Hence immigration means a “hopeful” change to them and it has a positive effect on the students’ motivation to do well at school. Students undergoing Transitional Adaptation are generally high achievers with a strong student identity. Having adapted i.e. assimilated to Hong Kong, they are just like the locally-borns both in their own eyes and from the views of their teachers and peers.“Instrumental Adaptation”
Students going through Instrumental Adaptation are those from linguistic and cultural backgrounds similar to those of Hong Kong but they do not receive, or have not yet received, sufficient social support from the host society. The “cold” experiences, sometimes even discriminative ones, after their arrival in Hong Kong make them feel alienated from the society. They are skeptical about taking root in Hong Kong whole-heartedly. All the same, such structural alienation is simply transitional. It is because the students’ linguistic and cultural proximity (to the mainstream culture) provides them with cultural capital to become active social agents in search of social support from institutional agents. Once supportive networks with the institutional agents are established, they will follow the pathway of “Transitional Adaptation” and have their cultural capital and human capital activated. Their perception of immigration is instrumental because their concern is about how they can utilize the opportunities available during their stay in Hong Kong. Staying in Hong Kong, they hope for attaining better educational qualifications and thereafter getting a decent salary from a Hong Kong job for the sake of their future socio-economic advancement. They view the greater educational opportunities afforded by Hong Kong and the high transferability of Hong Kong educational credentials to other places (cultural capital of higher value) as justification for the hardships along their adaptation process. They adopt a positive dual frame of reference as “voluntary minorities” do. They generally have good school performance. Instrumental Adaptation means also a flexible adaptation strategy and the students attempt to make the best use of what they find attractive in both Hong Kong and their homeland. Given the closer ties between post-colonial Hong Kong and Mainland China economically and socially, they anticipate having a lifestyle such as working hard for a job in Hong Kong during weekdays and enjoying life during week-ends back in their homeland or other places in the Mainland. They can be said to adopt a trans-territorial identity. In comparison with the other four modes of adaptation, Instrumental Adaptation is a more temporary type of adaptation. As students undergoing Instrumental Adaptation can act as a active social agent, adaptation means time for acquiring social support from the social institutions, and therefore activating and accumulating their capitals.“Accommodative Adaptation”
Accommodative Adaptation refers to accommodation to the social groups and relationships but not to the mainstream culture. It can also be termed as “structural accommodation with cultural alienation”. Upon their arrival, students undergoing Accommodative Adaptation experience warm reception from the institutional agents like teachers, locally-born students or church which try to establish supportive networks with them. Although they receive social support and “acceptance” from the mainstream society, their culture (i.e. values, lifestyles, ethnic identity, and their ambivalent feelings about immigration) is seldom taken care of. Their culture is not fully compatible with that of their Hong Kong peers. Without ethnic social support, they feel that they are culturally marginalized as compared with the mainstream students, and they tend to develop a mono-ethnic perception of Hong Kong culture and society. Also, they view that the Hong Kong lifestyle is less desirable than their lifestyle in homeland. Hence they do not perceive Hong Kong as a new home that accommodates their own cultures and values, nor do they feel they can become “full members” of the society. The dual frame of reference – that comparison between “home” and the host society -adopted by new arrival students coming from a different cultural background is indeed more complex than the cultural ecological theory suggests. The cultural ecological theory argues that voluntary immigrants on the whole look forward to a “better tomorrow” in the host society. That “better tomorrow” is the positive element in that dual frame of reference. I find that the students (with cultural difference) have in fact “two dual frames of reference”: one makes reference to the host society’s opportunity structures in comparison with those back home; the other makes reference to the cultures of the two places. In the case of Accommodative Adaptation, we have seen that although the students think positively Hong Kong’s opportunity structure, they hold rather negative views about Hong Kong’s values and lifestyles or in short Hong Kong culture. For them it is not a simple “better tomorrow” in Hong Kong. They are ambivalent about Hong Kong society.“Bicultural Adaptation”
Bicultural Adaptation refers to accommodation both to the social structures and the culture of the mainstream society. Borrowing the term of Margaret Gibson, I would also describe Bicultural Adaptation as “accommodation without assimilation”. Students going through Bicultural Adaptation are those who experience significant linguistic and cultural differences in Hong Kong, but who receive sufficient social support from institutional agents and the family. The support embraces support which is ethnic in nature. Adapting in a supportive socio-cultural context, such students despite linguistic and cultural differences adapt to Hong Kong biculturally. Supportive socio-cultural contexts include school culture which accommodates various ethnic languages, values and cultures, and social life in ethnic peer groups or dialect associations, and a family which retains an ethnic lifestyle. These contexts act as “cultural brokers” which connect the students with social institutions on one hand; and protect the students from adaptation hardships or discriminations on the other. Agencies of ethnic support function as a source of social capital; they help to sustain the students’ ethnic culture and identity. Bicultural Adaptation is a kind of “additive acculturation” (Gibson, 1991). Instead of abandoning their ethnic culture and then assimilating into the Hong Kong society, students adopting Bicultural Adaptation find it comfortable to keep their ethnic identity and way of life on one hand; while achieving academic success in the mainstream society on the other. Sustaining their ethnic identity, they want to honour their homeland by doing well in education in Hong Kong.“Marginality”
Marginality is the scenario of both structural and cultural alienation. Students experiencing significant linguistic and cultural differences in Hong Kong, and yet receiving insufficient social support and recognition from peers, school and family by and large fail to adapt to the new environment and find themselves alienated. Students of Marginality are on the whole low achievers and have lost the learning motivation due to repeated failures in schoolwork. Unlike the cases of Accommodative Adaptation or Bicultural Adaptation, the students of Marginality do not experience warm reception from the host society’s institutional agents and hence these students lack supportive social networks. Lacking social capital, they find it hard to activate whatever cultural capital they possess. In addition, these students are also deficient in cultural capital in that they come from backgrounds culturally quite different from Hong Kong and they come from deprived families which have little cultural capital to pass onto their children. Thus for instance they lack competence in Cantonese which increases the difficulty they face in building social relationships with local peers. Whilst other new arrival students start adapting and accumulating their capitals, students of Marginality cannot help but remain marginalized and alienated from the host society. Students who are marginalized in their adaptation experiences usually lose their motivation to learn and to achieve; hence they are indifferent about the opportunity structure of the host society. Owing to structural and cultural alienation, they miss their life in homeland and consider it superior to the life in Hong Kong. Such “marginalized” students often suffer from low self-esteem which negatively impact on their student identity. Apart from poor school performance, the consequences of Marginality are usually deviant behaviour, depression and other kinds of psychological disturbance.Vocational, Post-secondary and Continuing Education
The Manpower Development Committee (MDC) advises the Government on the coordination, regulation and promotion of the vocational, post-secondary and continuing education sectors. It will help establishing a qualifications framework and a quality assurance mechanism to support the development of a lifelong learning society. It also offers advice on the manpower needs and the disbursement of funds to training providers. The Vocational Training Council (VTC) advises the Government on measures required to ensure a comprehensive system of vocational education and training suited to the developing needs of Hong Kong. It also institutes, develops and operates schemes for training operatives, craftsmen, technicians and technologists to sustain and improve industry, commerce and services. The VTC also establishes, operates and maintains the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (IVE), industrial training and development centres and skills centres. It also administers the Apprenticeship Ordinance. The IVE offers courses at higher technician, technician and craft levels leading to the awards of higher diploma, higher certificate, diploma and certificate. The education and training provided aims to lead to satisfactory employment, and lay a foundation for the students’ continued personal and professional development. In the academic year of 2002/03, more than 26 000 students were enrolled in full-time courses and nearly 29 000 in part-time courses. In response to government’s new initiative to increase the provision of post-secondary education for senior secondary school leavers from 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the relevant age cohorts within 10 years, the VTC set up in 2001 a new school called the VTC School of Business and Information Systems (SBI) to run self-financing full-time higher diploma programmes. In the academic year of 2002/03, over 1 400 places were offered. Furthermore, in order to support the provision of a seamless higher education for young people in Hong Kong, the VTC is actively seeking partnership with reputable local and overseas universities to provide attractive articulation pathways for its higher diploma graduates. About 97 400 full-time, part-time and self-study trainee places are offered in the 18 training and development centres of the VTC. They provide basic and upgrading courses for employees at all levels.Vocational Training for People with Disabilities
The VTC operates three skills centres and monitors the operation of another two operated by non-governmental organisations. These centres have about 1 250 planned full-time training places of which about 480 are provided with residential facilities.Professional Teacher Preparation
The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), under the aegis of the University Grants Committee (UGC), aims at upgrading the quality of the teaching profession. It offers a range of degree and postgraduate programmes as well as some sub-degree teacher education programmes targeted at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels. In 2002/03, the institute offered 46 courses for 7 470 full-time and part-time students. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and The University of Hong Kong (HKU) offer full-time and part-time degree and postgraduate programmes for in-service and pre-service teachers. The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) also offers both undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes on a full-time or part-time basis. The Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) offers two in-service Bachelor of Education (Honours) degree programmes and two in-service Postgraduate Diploma in Education programmes for primary and secondary school teachers. To cater to the community’s demand, these institutes also offer short courses for in-service education practitioners from time to time upon requests from the Education and Manpower Bureau.Continuing Professional Development for Principals
Starting from the 2002/03 school year, all serving principals have to undertake continuing professional development activities for about 50 hours per year, adding up to a minimum of 150 hours in a three-year cycle. Newly appointed principals in their first two years are required to undertake specific continuing professional development activities. Starting from the 2004/05 school year, aspiring principals will have to attain the Certification for Principalship, in addition to complying with the appointment condition in force at the time, before they could be considered for appointment.List of schools
See also
|
- Hong Kong Education and Manpower Bureau
- Direct Subsidy Scheme
- Education in mainland China
- Education by country
- List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.