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Send kid to local school instead.

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  1. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by carang:
    i've given Form 5 hk students worksheets from singapore made for p5children... the local students couldn't do them.
    I've given HK Primary 5 grammar exercises to native speakers; the native speakers struggled to do them.
    HowardCoombs and carang like this.

  2. #32

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    GOOD teachers (the ones with skills, passion....) are definitely well underpaid.


  3. #33

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    I don't think that teachers in International Schools in HK are underpaid.

    I have to agree that it's rarely the best minds that decide to go into teaching particularly in primary and secondary however you certainly don't need to be a genius to be a brilliant teacher. I think that a master of the content can sometimes be less effective than someone that is simply competent in it depending on their personalities and how well the interact with students. It's pretty hard to fill a container if the lid is closed...

    There's so much more to teaching than relating content and there's so much more to learning than gobbling up facts or grammatical rules...


  4. #34

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    If people are criticising HK education for failing to provide kids with decent English language education, it might be worth pointing out that around 24% of children in the UK are functionally illiterate when they leave primary school. Education systems the world over are not perfect and come nowhere close to enabling every student to reach their full potential, but in terms of the English language ability of the general population, I think HK could be doing much much worse.


  5. #35

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    native english teachers/foreign teachers in both local and international schools are definitely NOT underpaid and they even get flat+utilities allowance. good for them but bad for the local teachers' morale!

    am i the only one to think that we should also look into our kid's ability rather than blaming the HK education system/teachers/etc.?


  6. #36

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    Quote Originally Posted by AsiaKid:
    Araucaria,
    You seem quite critical of HK's EMI system. I am confused what you mean when you suggest that their English level is not to par?

    I'm confused by what you mean by HK's EMI System.

    When you say English, I presume you actually mean "sounding" English.

    You can presume what you like. I didn't say that.

    If you have read carefully - which apparently you haven't - you'd realise I'm talking about the fact that the MOI in most so-called EMI schools is Cantonese, with the result that such schools are not accessible to non-Cantonese speakers. There are a few exceptions.


    You also made a comment about the government not making the effort to hire "native" teachers.

    Please reference this. Are you getting mixed up again?

    What do you define as native? As far as I know, most "native" English teachers can barely pass the requirements they have set upon their own students.

    I agree. There are some woefully inadequate teachers recruited from overseas by the HK SAR. I'm quite astonished at what I've come across.Whose fault do you think it is?

    If you want to look at the shortcomings of teachers, I would suggest you think about the economic value of teachers as based on the value they produce versus the value they receive versus the value they are suppose to create

    Is this a serious sentence?

    - this in itself would indicate why teachers typically fall short of our demands (any school anywhere). The best teachers nowadays are those who genuinely have the passion to care for their students and ignore the disproportional pay they receive for what they give in return to their kids.

    What does this have to do with anything?

    Sorry for the rant. But to simply ignore the achievements of the local school system is unfair to the inroads the EMI scheme has made to the students it serves.

    I'm not aware of any EMI 'scheme'. Is there one? There are over 100 EMI schools in Hong Kong turning out 200 F. 5 grads a year. That's 20,000 'immersed' students, or over 10 years, 200,000. I'm asking the question - where are they?

    The EMI offered to joe public is fool's gold. All Hong Kongers know that and studiously avoid sending their kids anywhere near them if they have a choice - hence the clamour for ESF places among even the modestly well-heeled.

    My comments apply to the OP's enquiry regarding sending a child to a local school, not to general platitudes glorifying the teaching profession, or language wars in Montreal. Why not offer some relevant advice of your own?

  7. #37

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    Quote Originally Posted by aava:
    native english teachers/foreign teachers in both local and international schools are definitely NOT underpaid and they even get flat+utilities allowance. good for them but bad for the local teachers' morale!
    Absolutely agree in terms of NETs/IntSchool teachers in HK comparative to locals. Absolutely disagree in terms of teachers' salaries in general comparative to other (less 'important'??) professions. But that's the same for any public sector jobs (police, fire service, etc. etc.) I feel.
    Mat likes this.

  8. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    I don't think that teachers in International Schools in HK are underpaid.

    I.
    I said GOOD teachers, not teachers in International School.

  9. #39

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    Back to the OP, though...

    I've experienced local education back in the 80s when I was in primary school in HK, and I've experienced education in the UK throughout the whole of the 90s and early 00s, and I have to say I have reservations about sending my daughter to a local school. My sister sends her daughter to a local school, the best in the area apparently, and her daughter is always stressed, the competition very intense. I went with her once or twice to get her school report when I happened to be in HK and all the mothers gathered around to compare results. I was actually surprised that parents had to go to get the results...

    After seeing what my niece is going through (and remembering my own experience), I am not sure I want my daughter to go through the same thing. I also think the IB programme is a very good one and one I want my daughter to follow. I don't want her to spend her whole life studying and nothing else.


  10. #40

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    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    Singapore does not have a homogenous society and a common language like HK and for many English is the language they will use at home or to communicate with others in their daily life.

    That's a very big difference...
    thank you, I realise that... i was targetting some of the other posters who were asking about the standard of english that is spoken by many hk students.