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Subsidize English medium education?

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  1. #1

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    Subsidize English medium education?

    Fee rises of up to 27.5 per cent approved for English Schools Foundation institutions in Hong Kong | South China Morning Post

    Without the anchour of a public service, costs can run wild!

    Should the Government offer subsidies to encourage expats to come and make money in and for Hong Kong?
    Last edited by East_coast; 27-07-2017 at 07:47 PM.

  2. #2

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    Quote Originally Posted by East_coast:
    Should the Government offer subsidies to encourage expats to come and make money in and for Hong Kong?
    No. Government should offer subsidies to improve local education for local people to excel locally as well as internationally.

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by HowardCoombs:
    No. Government should offer subsidies to improve local education for local people to excel locally as well as internationally.
    Many local kids don't have good enough Cantonese to survive the local system and English only schools focus on ESL students - Where should they go?

    A photo from one of he private ESF schools


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    Voucher scheme similar to what they do for senior citizens. Any permanent resident who has a school going kid should be eligible.


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    A lot of local schools, both government and subsidised, are using English for teaching -

    http://www.lcu.edu.hk/download/1415/...73Appendix.pdf

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    Quote Originally Posted by james_hklocal:
    A lot of local schools, both government and subsidised, are using English for teaching -

    http://www.lcu.edu.hk/download/1415/...73Appendix.pdf
    Unfortunately these tend to be segmented. Some very low end and some very high end.

    The one you posted targets low-income families. Not where middle class parents want to send their kids and the chances of their kids being bright enough to get into the Heep Yun's etc is pretty low. Doesn't feel like a good system for non-chinese speakers.
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    However much money is invested in EMT. it won't change the fact that generally speaking HK.'s English proficiency is piss poor.

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    actually, i'd like to see more HK support for non-canto speakers to learn how to speak *some* cantonese. right now very few people learn canto anywhere but at home. and, unless i'm wrong on this, schools that cater to int'l students & teach in english don't have classes to teach cantonese to non-native speakers.

    you want a program that will appeal to expats, add in some reasons to stay and put down roots.


  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Loblaw:
    actually, i'd like to see more HK support for non-canto speakers to learn how to speak *some* cantonese. right now very few people learn canto anywhere but at home. and, unless i'm wrong on this, schools that cater to int'l students & teach in english don't have classes to teach cantonese to non-native speakers.

    you want a program that will appeal to expats, add in some reasons to stay and put down roots.
    I agree that there should be more and better provision of Cantonese language to non-Chinese students, but I think it's better placed in the government school sector rather than private/international.

    To me the bigger issue HK is going to have to deal with is how long it's going to pretend to be a trilingual city. Beijing wants all students learning Mandarin. I'd be curious to see if an "MSF" type set of subsidized schools emerges across the city. I think there are a few (KCS maybe?) that are Mandarin-oriented but not on a large scale.

  10. #10

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    I know a NET who came here with her kids who were older primary age. Was told the only school with places that could accommodate her non-Chinese speaking kids was miles away (HK Island and they lived in NT). I think they ended up homeschooling and then scraping money together for a lower priced international school.

    Totally agree it's nonsense, they can't say "just join local schools" and then treat non-Chinese who enter at any age after 3 as basically lost causes.
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