Introduction  

Change in the school system in Hong Kong leading up to the 1990s focused largely on improving access to public education. For instance, the number of public schools was increased, and the duration of compulsory education was extended. In the early 90s, the focus shifted to improving the quality of education. For example a high priority was placed on the training of the teaching force, standardizing the language of instruction, and providing considerably more opportunities for students to study at the tertiary level. Some of the efforts in the early 90s also reflected a keen sense of the impending shift in governance that took place in 1997, when Great Britain handed back control of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. According to the laws that set out the framework for the handing over of control of Hong Kong to the Chinese government, the Hong Kong government was given the right to retain its pre-existing authority over education. (see Footnote 1)

Indeed, many of the reforms of the 1990s are directly and indirectly linked to the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997. While the expansion of opportunities at the tertiary level were aimed at improving equity in higher education, the effort was also seen as a "public demonstration of self-confidence" in the power of the Hong Kong government. Likewise, the adoption of Mandarin as the language medium of instruction rather than the English-Cantonese mix that had dominated classrooms in the past, was also instituted with an eye toward the change in governments. (Government of Hong Kong, Education Department Web page: http://www.info.gov.hk/ed/english/index.htm)

While the system is undergoing many changes, the following provides an overview of the structure, governance, finance, curriculum, system of promotion and higher education, and teacher training certification that has been in place in Hong Kong most of this decade.

Structure of Schooling  

Modeled after the educational system of the United Kingdom in the 1970s, school in Hong Kong is compulsory and free for all children for nine years, consisting of six years of primary school and three years of junior secondary school. Table 1 provides the schematic of the Hong Kong system, and gives its U.S. equivalent. For example, a ten year-old would generally be in Primary 5, (fourth-grade in the U.S.), with school being both compulsory and free.

Nearly 90 percent of children aged 4 - 6 receive preschool and kindergarten education, however preschool and kindergarten is not compulsory, and is almost exclusively privately operated. Though these schools are required to register with the Education Department, Hong Kong, China is one of the few members in the Asia-Pacific Economic Region (APEC) where there is no government provision of pre-primary education (APEC, 61). As improvements to the quality of primary education are being pursued, the Education Department is considering increasing resources and teacher preparation requirements for this sector of schooling (Cobb, p. 95).

Primary schooling begins at age six, and is compulsory for six years. While most secondary schools offer the full-seven year course level (three years of junior secondary and five years of senior secondary) leading to the tertiary, all secondary schools offer a five-year course in a broad range of academic subjects leading to the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE). The three years of senior secondary school are neither compulsory nor free, however 85 percent of the appropriate age cohort are provided subsidies to attend. An additional ten percent of the cohort are provided full-time tuition to pursue technical education (APEC, 21).

Students of any type of secondary track who perform well on the HKCEE may continue on the Secondary 6 and 7, also known as "the 6th Form" -- a non-compulsory, two-year course leading to the university and polytechnic school entrance examination, the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination (the "A-level"). While the majority of students continuing on to the 6th Form are grammar (academic) school Secondary 5 graduates, students of the technical and prevocational track may also pursue an academic tertiary education by completing the two-year 6th Form course.

While, primary schools offer a standard academic-based curriculum, several types institutions providing secondary education are as follows:

• Grammar schools offer a five-year academic course leading to the HKCEE, and many also offer a further two-year course leading the A-level exam (the "6th Form"). They aim to provide all children with a "broadly similar course of secondary education comprising a balanced blend of academic, practical, and cultural subjects" (Cobb, p. 98).
• Prevocational schools offer a five-year course leading to the HKCEE, and most also offer the "6th Form" course leading the A-level exam. These schools provide a mix between academic and vocational training with at least 40 percent of the curriculum devoted to technical subjects. "Students are provided with a solid foundation of general knowledge and an introduction to a broad-based technical and practical education upon which future vocational training may be based" (Cobb, p. 98).
• Technical institutes offer craft and technical studies to graduates of Secondary 3 and also offer it at the tertiary level to Secondary 5 graduates. The craft course is usually completed in one year, while the technician course can be completed in two years. A wide range of disciplines in which to concentrate one's studies include commercial studies, construction industries, computing studies, design, clothing and fashion, hotel and tourism studies, and engineering.

Other types of schools include special education schools and schools for children with emotional and behavioral problems.

School Governance and Finance  

The system of education in Hong Kong is a primarily centralized with some decentralized components to it.

Governance  Education in Hong Kong is centrally managed by the Education Department, through nineteen regional offices. The Director of Education directly controls all government schools (public schools) and supervises education at the preschool, primary and secondary school levels, and some tertiary institutions. The Director has a broad-range of powers including direction over staffing issues and conditions of service, while the school head carries out these policies on a per-school basis (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2640). The Education Department appoints school heads for government-funded schools, while sponsoring agencies name those for schools with other types of funding sources.

The three types of schools in Hong Kong are as follows:

• Government schools are public schools funded from public sources, and are entirely free to all students. These schools are attended by less than 10 percent of the school-aged cohort at both the primary and secondary school levels.
• Private schools are financed primarily by fees paid by the students' parents (Postiglione, p. 635). These schools are attended by 10 percent of primary school students and 18 percent secondary school students. While most of the private primary schools are considered prestigious institutions, many private secondary schools have a "lower status and cater to pupils unable to gain places in government or "aided" schools" (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2638).
• Aided schools are non-profit, private providers of education at both the primary and secondary levels that receive subsidies from public funds. Largely due to colonial Hong Kong's reluctance to expand publicly-funded education, the government allowed the public demand for primary and secondary education to be satisfied initially by private, profit-making businesses, and charitable bodies to which the government provided nominal funds (Morris, p. 33). To improve access to education, the private profit-making schools were phased out and replaced with the aided school system. Today, this is the most prevalent and popular school type. About 85 percent of students attend aided schools at the primary level and about 75 percent attend at the secondary level. While compulsory education up to Secondary 3 is free, aided schools at Secondary 4 and 5, 6 and 7 are not. In 1994 tuition for Secondary 4 and 5 cost about HK$2,100 (about US$270) per year, and Secondary 6 and 7 cost about HK$2550 (about US$331) per year (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2640).

Finance  The high economic growth rates that Hong Kong has experienced this decade have greatly facilitated the expansion of education. Most funding for education comes from the central government, accounting for 15-20 percent of the total government budget (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2640). (see Footnote 2)

One initiative with far-reaching consequences is the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS). "Under the DSS scheme, aided secondary schools are able to become private institutions but still receive substantial government grants. Existing private schools can apply to join the scheme and thereby obtain grants" (Bray, 333). As private institutions, the DSS schools are granted greater autonomy, such as permission to determine teachers' salaries, and to select pupils. The DSS is designed to present greater variety in school providers.

School fees for secondary education were discussed in the previous section. Fees are also charged at the tertiary level, however they represent at most 16 percent of total recurring costs. Student loans provided by the government are also available. Relative to other developed nations, tertiary education in Hong Kong is still quite inexpensive.

Curriculum  

The Curriculum Development Council branch of the Education Department advises on teaching hours per subject and curricular aims at preschool, primary and secondary school as well as on special education. While expected to change with the intended language-medium reforms, primary school curriculum is dominated primarily by Cantonese, English and mathematics instruction, with at least one period per day devoted to each. In contrast, social studies, science, arts and crafts, music and physical education are allotted two or three periods per week of instruction.

A similar group of subjects are offered at the secondary level. While greater stress is placed on practical subjects taught at technical and prevocational schools, the overall curriculum remains highly academic, and curricular differences between all secondary schools are slight. Recent efforts to increase the place of practical studies in prevocational schools have met with a great deal of resistance from parents who view a mostly technical education as limiting their children's future earning potentials. This resistance is even stronger at the post-compulsory stage (Secondary 4-6), where studies are dominated by (and therefore promotion is determined by) academically-focused public examinations (Husen and Postlethwaite, 2641).

An issue which complicates curriculum choices is chosen language medium of instruction. While English-medium schools were clearly preferred over Cantonese medium schools (by nine to one in the 1980s) what prevailed in the classroom was instruction in a mixture of both languages (Postiglione, 642). Government reforms are currently aimed at improving students' competency in at least one language by eliminating the use of "Chinglish", and instead stressing Mandarin as the dominant language of instruction (643). The fact that Cantonese -- not Mandarin -- is the language Hong Kongers consider their "mother tongue" further complicates the issue.

However barriers to Mandarin language-based instruction remain. While many Mandarin-language medium schools are operated at both primary and secondary levels, tertiary education is dominated by English-language medium instruction, thus inhibiting the advancement from Mandarin-language medium institutions (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2636). Moreover, many parents prefer English-medium education because they believe it enhances opportunities in the labor market (2642). To be implemented during 1998-99 most English-language medium schools are scheduled to be converted to Chinese-medium schools. Support is being given to parents and schools through this transition designed "to enable schools and parents to see for themselves the benefits of mother-tongue teaching"

Standards for Student Performance and Gateways to Promotion and Higher Education  

Promotion.  The system of promotions is based on a centrally managed allocation system that places students in government and aided schools. (Private institutions have their own admissions system). The Primary One Allocation system determines each student's primary school, based mainly on geography, but also attempts to take parental preferences into account (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2641). At the completion of primary school, students are allocated a place in the first year of junior secondary school (Form 1) by the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) system. Decisions about a student's placement are based on their performance on the centrally administered aptitude test - Academic Ability Test (AAT). Parental choices are also considered. Within the primary and junior secondary school levels, promotion is essentially automatic. In fact, at the secondary level, official policy restricts repetition to no more 5% of the cohort in any one year (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2541).

Examinations.  The character of the school selection process in Hong Kong is largely based on examinations and has been described as "brutal" (Postiglione, p. 645). "Before reaching the university level, students will have faced seven selection examinations or interviews. Few school systems are as intensely competitive as Hong Kong's" (Morris, p. 33). At the completion of Secondary 3 students take another aptitude examination which determines their senior secondary school for Secondary 4 and 5. About 85 percent of the Secondary 3 graduates are promoted to Secondary 4 in public sector schools, and 6 percent are admitted to basic craft courses in tertiary vocational institutes. At the end of Secondary 5, students sit for the all-important HKCEE, which is the sole determinant of entrance into the 6th Form. Those who complete the 6th Form who seek admission to the universities and the polytechnics may take the Advanced Level Examination (A-level). In 1996 about 72 percent of the A-level candidates earned a passing score (Information Services of the Government of Hong Kong, p. 141).

Access to Higher Education.  Historically, access to higher education has been limited to a very small portion of the population. Up until this decade, less than 6 percent of the population entered post-secondary education (Postiglione, p. 645). In an effort to ensure continued economic growth, the government announced in 1989 that acceptance rates for undergraduate study would expand to 25 percent of the relevant age group to attend by 1995. This was to be accomplished though rapid expansion and heavy government subsidy (Cheng, 257). Admissions to university, polytechnics, and tertiary-level vocational school are based on the results of their A-level exam in a variety of subjects.

Teacher Training and Certification  

Depending on their academic credentials, two main sources of academic and practical training for teacher candidates exist. Non-graduate teachers for primary and secondary schools may earn a Teacher Certificate from one of four government-run colleges of education. Secondary 5 graduates complete three years of teacher training, while Secondary 7 graduates complete two years of similar training, either in pre-service or in-service modes (Cobb, p. 91). University graduates may attend teaching degree-granting institutions offered in universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education (93). Universities offer a one-year, full-time teacher education course, and a two-year part-time one (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2640). Two universities also offer Post-Graduate Certificates in Education (PGCE) "to equip subject-based degree holders to acquire the necessary teacher training"to teach at the post-secondary level (Secondary 5 and 6) (Cobb, p. 93). For admission to teacher training programs, all teachers must undergo two interviews designed to assess both their attitudes about teaching, as well as their language competencies. A practical test for certain subjects is also considered in admission decisions (94).

Overall, "wide variations exist in their academic qualifications, professional preparation, and terms of service" (Husen & Postlethwaite, p. 2640). Although the long-term goal of the government is to achieve an all-graduate profession, the bulk of the teaching force consists of non-university-degree holders. Even at the secondary level, about one-third of teachers are non-graduates (2640). To improve this situation, the government has embarked on programs to upgrade teacher-training quality and increase the minimum requirements to teach. The goals of this reform effort include having 35 percent of primary school teachers upgraded to graduate status by 2007, and requiring kindergarten teachers to possess a minimum qualification of having completed Secondary 5 with passing grades in at least two subjects on the HKCEE (Information Services of the Government of Hong Kong Government, p. 145).

References  

General Reference

Bray, M. (1992). Colonialism, Scale, and Politics: Divergence and Convergence of Educational Development in Hong Kong and Macau. Comparative Education Review. vol. 36, no. 3. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press.

Cheng, J.Y.S., (1995). Higher Education in Hong Kong -- the approach to 1997 and the China factor, Higher Education, vol. 30. Netherlands: Klewer Academic Publishers.

Cobb, V. L. and Darling-Hammond, L. (Eds.) (1995). Teacher Training and Professional Development in Hong Kong, Teacher Preparation and Professional Development in APEC Members: A Comparative Study. Singapore: Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat.

Hong Kong Education Department, Web page: http://www.info.gov.hk/ed/english/index.htm

Husen, T. & Postlethwaite, N. (Eds.) (1994). The International Encyclopedia of Education (Second edition). Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Information Services of the Government of Hong Kong Government, (1997). Hong Kong 1997: A Review of 1996, Government Printers: Hong Kong.

Morris, P., McClelland, G., and Man, W.P. (1997). Explaining Curriculum Change: Social Studies in Hong Kong, Comparative Education Review, vol. 41, no 1. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press.

Postiglione, G.A., (1991). From Capitalism to Socialism? Hong Kong Education within a Transitional Society, Comparative Education Review, vol. 35, no. 4. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago University Press.