Culture shock: the upside-down world of white families navigating Hong Kong’s local school system

[shri]

Can't be many still using that particular benefit now I guess.

From a recent budget doc.

[keieich]

Are local teachers qualified to teach in any other language other than Cantonese? Isn't this the heart of the problem?

That's exactly the heart of the problem. I think these days local teachers still have to pass a proficiency test for English language before they are allowed to teach in English. The pass rate used to be dismal. Worse still a 'pass' is nothing more than a paper qualification i.e. they are QUALIFIED ON PAPER to teach. But are they in reality? How well the average Hongkonger, who are taught by local teachers, speak or write English?

[jonastainine]

That's exactly the heart of the problem. I think these days local teachers still have to pass a proficiency test for English language before they are allowed to teach in English. The pass rate used to be dismal. Worse still a 'pass' is nothing more than a paper qualification i.e. they are QUALIFIED ON PAPER to teach. But are they in reality? How well the average Hongkonger, who are taught by local teachers, speak or write English?

This didn't happen overnight. HK was a British colony for 99 years, an international city and all that. Should the colonial government have forced the population to learn English by making HK a bilingual city? I would say yes. but what happened? Was it proposed and opposed? I am interested.

I asked one educator years ago why HK post handover still has not embrace putonghua as medium of instruction since the Mainland surely would want it that way as matter of policy and patriotism. The answer surprised me. She said this was discussed but dropped because local teachers lacked the skills to teach in putonghua so the alternative would have been to recruit mainland teachers. But recruiting expat teachers would mean paying them a high salary potentially higher than locals and also need to give them housing. Due to the opposition from local teachers this idea was dropped. Local teachers did not want the competition nor any foreigners making more than they did. I wonder if this scenario played out when came to foreign English teachers decades ago.

[Golem]

IB is a curriculum though, you can have IB at a non-international school. Where I grew up a few private and even some public schools offer IB diploma alongside normal American curriculum. In HK I think DBS/DGS are IB schools but they are local private not international.

I'm talking about international schools, whose primary objective is to offer a foreign curriculum to children from that country. In HK they are flooded with applications from locals who just want to escape the local system. They have no interest in Canada, US, UK, etc. they just want to get their kids out of the local rat race. But then the children who are genuine expats, foreigners only holding US passport or whatever, end up struggling because the fees are skyrocketing.

You are way off base, most of the kids in HK international schools apply to universities outside of HK, not all of them go but the majority do end up going overseas. For your information, IB is NOT a curriculum, there no exams or prescribed content for most of it. The DP in the last two years of it concludes with standardized exams which are recognized in universities around the world making it easier for kids to go straight into those without the need for additional language exams. HK kids that attend international schools no more or no less want to escape the system than those in Bangkok or KL. A lot of it is about the reputation of the schools, if parents can get their kids in DBS or DGS, they'll often leave those international schools. The same goes for university, if they get in med school at HKU, they might stay, if not, they'll go to the next best option.

[Golem]

If the kids of the elite couldn't study overseas or at international schools, the local education system would finally get dragged into the 20th century.

The same argument is often used about private schools... What is the difference between affluent western parents sending their kids to private schools vs the ones in HK sending them to international schools? Basically, the name... it's used to market the fact that kids can go study overseas more easily whereas in western countries, they don't need to. They can go straight to Harvard or Oxford... Some HK parents also send their kids to elite boarding schools. It doesn't matter what country, the children of the elite very rarely go to the local state school.

I do agree however that it's an oddity(thanks to the recent colonial overlord) that civil servants get subsidies to send kids to private schools.

[bigcrown]

Just for argument sake - can’t a local student study aboard comfortably overseas in their early age (say year 7/ 8)?

I’ve see a dozen or more young kids who go back to their home country and study overseas with no issues. My point being I don’t believe in private school in HK

[Golem]

Private schools exist in most countries...why should HK be any different?

[keieich]

This didn't happen overnight. HK was a British colony for 99 years, an international city and all that. Should the colonial government have forced the population to learn English by making HK a bilingual city? I would say yes. but what happened? Was it proposed and opposed? I am interested.

I asked one educator years ago why HK post handover still has not embrace putonghua as medium of instruction since the Mainland surely would want it that way as matter of policy and patriotism. The answer surprised me. She said this was discussed but dropped because local teachers lacked the skills to teach in putonghua so the alternative would have been to recruit mainland teachers. But recruiting expat teachers would mean paying them a high salary potentially higher than locals and also need to give them housing. Due to the opposition from local teachers this idea was dropped. Local teachers did not want the competition nor any foreigners making more than they did. I wonder if this scenario played out when came to foreign English teachers decades ago.

You don't have to "force" the populace to learn English by making HK a bilingual city. Both English and Chinese have been and still are official languages. The Brits have never intended to have an English speaking populace in HK. They didn't have to force anyone to learn the language. In British HK English used to be a ladder to go up the social (+economic) ladder. Ironically it still is. At least that's what many people here still believe in. Whether HK's educational system is a failure or a success story people would continue to send kids to international schools. The flooding of these schools is exactly the problem we are discussing. If one day Putonghua becomes the way to go up the social & economic ladder this problem would go away. That "foreign" teachers (whether they teach English or Putonghua) pose unwelcome competition is to me just a red herring.

I won't have my kids taught by English speaking locals here, ever. The teaching of English in HK is a total failure and yet people here choose to ignore it as if it's never a problem. Unbelievable.

[drumbrake]

I won't have my kids taught by English speaking locals here, ever. The teaching of English in HK is a total failure and yet people here choose to ignore it as if it's never a problem. Unbelievable.

But there is a significant number of locally educated people who do speak an expert level of English, and many more who speak it at a competent level. So, the teaching of English in Hong Kong cannot be a total failure.

[rs4]

IB is a curriculum though, you can have IB at a non-international school. Where I grew up a few private and even some public schools offer IB diploma alongside normal American curriculum. In HK I think DBS/DGS are IB schools but they are local private not international.

I'm talking about international schools, whose primary objective is to offer a foreign curriculum to children from that country. In HK they are flooded with applications from locals who just want to escape the local system. They have no interest in Canada, US, UK, etc. they just want to get their kids out of the local rat race. But then the children who are genuine expats, foreigners only holding US passport or whatever, end up struggling because the fees are skyrocketing.

Speaking of fees skyrocketing... it's nothing new we see that on a daily basis. If you run your own business and more and more people are willing to spend their money in your service or product, wouldn't you jack up the price as well? (to keep up with the expenses - not gonna mention inflation - and/or even to have a better life) It's a no brainer. It's simply the law of supply and demand. Same happened when real estate prices went up insanely due to the high influx of mainland Chinese with their $$$$$$. HK is all about money, doesn't care whether you are local, mainland Chinese, genuine expats or foreigners with only US passport, it only cares about your money. It is/sounds very competitive and harsh, but that's what you all signed up for in the end.