{"id":12989,"date":"2018-11-13T13:45:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T05:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=12989"},"modified":"2021-10-15T17:29:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T09:29:15","slug":"divide-and-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2018\/11\/divide-and-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Divide and School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Direct subsidy schools are damaging students\u2019 social mobility academics claim<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Raven Hui & Civi Yap<\/strong><\/p>\n

R<\/span>etired primary school principal Leung Kee-cheong sighs with regret over the inequalites in the Hong Kong education system.<\/p>\n

He bemoans the deep differences between government schools and those on the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and the effect on students.<\/p>\n

For Leung, the division between rich and poor students is not just heartfelt \u2013 it needs to make headlines. And, back in 2002 he did just that.<\/p>\n

That year he left his school development officer job in the Education and Manpower Bureau to take over the closure-threatened Fresh Fish Traders\u2019 School in Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon. Then the battle for the school for mainly grassroots students really commenced. Leung fought long and hard and won. He remained as the school\u2019s principal until his retirement in 2015.<\/p>\n

Now, however, he is thinking of one student in particular who won a place at a DSS school.\u201cYeung Man was a top student and I recommended her to get into Heep Yunn School in 2013. But I learnt that she dropped out of school last year, as she could not manage her studies while having a part-time job to cover the tuition fees,\u201d Leung says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very unfortunate,\u201d he adds. \u201cOur school can help students to get good results with the aid of donations, but once they get into secondary school, there are no more resources that can help them. I have tried to contact her, but she did not pick up my call.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Fresh Fish Traders\u2019 School, well-known for helping grassroots students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The DSS was introduced in 1991 to inject diversity into the local education system by giving some schools autonomy in management and some independence in setting fees and curriculums. DSS schools receive a government subsidy for each student who is enrolled but are still allowed to collect fees.<\/p>\n

Heep Yunn School\u2019s annual school fee for each student, for instance, is HK$33,000 while at St. Paul\u2019s Co-educational College, the fee is HK$61,000 for secondary school classes, and HK$91,500 for International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) classes. These schools, therefore, have more resources to provide additional support services and facilities, such as building swimming pools and offering exchange opportunities.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
School<\/th>Year turned into DSS<\/th>Annual IB Tuition Fee
\n(Secondary 6) (HKD) <\/th>		Annual Tuition Fee
\n(Secondary 6) (HKD)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Diocesan Girl\u2019s School<\/td>2005<\/td>$38,000<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Diocesan Boy\u2019s School<\/td>2004<\/td>$48,650<\/td>$99,320<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Good Hope School<\/td>2002<\/td>$45,000<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Heep Yunn School<\/td>2012<\/td>$34,980<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
St. Paul\u2019s Convent School<\/td>2004<\/td>$27,500<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
St. Paul\u2019s Co-Educational College<\/td>2002<\/td>$61,000<\/td>$91,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ying Wa College<\/td>2007<\/td>$19,900<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
St. Paul\u2019s College<\/td>2003<\/td>$40,400<\/td>-<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
St. Stephen\u2019s College<\/td>2008<\/td>$70,000<\/td>$102,500<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/p>\n

(Source: Schooland Website<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Students who studied at DSS schools believe their school brought them more opportunities and exposure. Yam Wai-shan, a graduate of St. Paul\u2019s Co-educational College, says: \u201cMy school arranges a four-week summer exchange programme to Australia for third-year students every year\u2026and it is partially funded by the school.\u201d Wong Yui-hang, a graduate of Heung To Secondary School (Tseung Kwan O) says the school has \u201ca lot of co-curricular activities\u2026they always hire the top tutors from the sports field.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, many top government-funded schools have made the switch to DSS. There are now 60 DSS secondary schools across the city and the change has sparked speculation that these prestigious schools made the move in a bid to maintain their social status in society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen DSS was introduced in the late 90s, not only Hong Kong but the whole world was talking about the new public management model which is bringing the mode of private business into education to enhance the efficiency of the sector. Senior government officials and education elites thought this could improve the functionality of education,\u201d says Hayes Tang Hei-hang, assistant professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Education University.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Hayes Tang says the original aim of DSS was to improve efficiency and diversification.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Retired school principal Leung believes many schools switch to DSS because they want to have automony in student admissions. \u201cDue to the decreasing population in Hong Kong, the number of students become fewer. Schools want to adopt DSS to maintain their own reputation hence they eliminate less wealthy students who are randomly sent by the government\u2019s Secondary School Places Allocation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Leung points out students in government funded schools and those in DSS schools are not competing on a level playing field. \u201cThis is not fair competition. Competition between DSS schools and aided schools is never fair. DSS schools receive money from the government and from the parents by charging tutition fees. You have double income and resources, how can that be fair? \u201d<\/p>\n

Students also observe inequalities between aided schools and DSS schools. Lam Ho-yi, a graduate of Po Leung Kuk Laws Foundation College, a DSS school, recalls: \u201cI had experience of the dissection of a mouse, ox eye and pig lung. But I found that my friend who studied in a government-aided school never had dissection at school. This made me realise that our school did really have more resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grassroots students who cannot afford the school fees of DSS schools can only go to government-aided or government-funded schools. Grassroots students admitted into the traditional, more prestigious schools still have a chance to move up the social ladder but Leung warns that once all those schools turn into DSS schools, they will lose that chance completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake say Maryknoll Convent School, a government aided-school; I can still be admitted if I study in a primary school somewhere else. But if I apply for St Paul\u2019s Co-educational college, which is a DSS school and most of the student quota is taken up by their affiliated primary school, I couldn\u2019t get in as the places left in the quota are only for people who are wealthy enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

This puts students from grassroots families at a disadvantage as they cannot afford the school fees. Even though DSS schools give out scholarships and financial schemes, poorer students are less likely to apply. Leung says: \u201cTo apply for financial help, you have to prove your family is from the low income category but then you would not pass the interview in the first place if you come from a low income family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photos of Lam Ho-yi going on an exchange programme in Japan when she was in secondary school. (Photo courtesy of Lam Ho-yi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite the growing polarisation, there are still groups who stand against turning prestigious government-funded schools into DSS establishments. In 2013, groups of former pupils and parents at St Stephen\u2019s Girls\u2019 School successfully fought against the school board applying to become a DSS school.<\/p>\n

They are, however, a rarity and meanwhile bright students from less wealthy families will be screened out by DSS schools at the interview stage, according to Leung. \u201cWhen a teacher is choosing students, they will accept you if you live in Laguna City [a private housing estate]. You will be rejected if you live in Lam Tin Estate [a public housing estate],\u201d he says. This means DSS schools are favoured by the middle-class families.<\/p>\n

The DSS Council was unavailable for comment about Leung\u2019s claim at the time of going to press.<\/p>\n

Some DSS schools adopt the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme instead of Hong Kong\u2019s Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) \u2013 the public examination students take in the final year of secondary school. Since the government recognises the IB certificate, students can choose to take HKDSE exams or the IB programme. The fee for the IB programme, however, is not included in the tuition fee. Students who are taking IB have to pay an additional fee of around HK$30,000.<\/p>\n

Leung notes: \u201cStudents choose IB over DSE because DSE is harder. Yet, students from government-aided school don\u2019t have a choice but only taking the DSE exam\u2026Only DSS students get to study the IB programme and the ratio of the university intakes of students from IB, GSCE, Non-JUPAS is higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, fewer poor people will have the chance to study in these elite schools which will affect their access to tertiary education and hinder Hong Kong\u2019s social mobility. \u201cSocial mobility in Hong Kong has a trend of polarisation. We have mobility, but it all depends on your class background,\u201d says Professor Wong Yi-lee, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. \u201cIf you come from a wealthy family, you can go up; otherwise, you fall deep down.\u201d She points out that the education system has lost its function as a social mobility mechanism to improve people\u2019s living standard.<\/p>\n

Wong adds that it is understandable that successful government-aided schools prefer switching to DSS so that they can enjoy autonomy in student selection. \u201cAs a school principal, he or she must be thinking of the interests of his or her own school and wants to maintain the quality of the school by admitting quality students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The IB programme in DSS schools, she says, offers students extra advantages. \u201cEven though students with IB certificates only make up a small amount of the university admissions, it seems like the medical department has taken in a lot of students with IB certificate\u2026This creates inequality, because most of the time\u2026IB is for students who have a better income background.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cParents have different strategies to try to bypass this competitive route in order to send their children to university in every generation. And this time it is the IB programme. Since you don\u2019t have to send your kids overseas, and why not take the IB? This creates inequality relating to the wealthiness of families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wong believes random allocation is the most suitable method to rectify the situation. \u201cPreviously, when we allocated students for basic education with random allocation, we were able to admit students from all levels,\u201d she says, \u201cRandom selection is better if you believe teaching is better when there is a group of people with mixed ability and background, which means you have all kinds of students in a class. Students actually can learn better from each other, like they get to know students with different background in a class.\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Edited by Rivers Zhang<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More and more elite schools are transformed into Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools which charge expensive tuition fees. Academics and educators express worry over grassroots students\u2019 access to quality education which will affect their social mobility in the long run. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1809,1076,7],"tags":[1107,1108,230,1106,732,1109],"class_list":["post-12989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-149","category-november-2018-the-education-dilemma","category-periscope","tag-admission","tag-divide","tag-dss","tag-polarisation","tag-school","tag-social-mobility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12989"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13246,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12989\/revisions\/13246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}