Shalini MahtaniandSusan Collins

Opinion | How international schools can truly cultivate diversity – support disadvantaged ethnic minority students

Hong Kong’s international, private and DSS schools are obliged to offer scholarships in exchange for land from the government. Hong Kong’s marginalised ethnic minority students would benefit from admission to these schools

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Ethnic minority students in Hong Kong government-funded schools that use Chinese as the medium of instruction struggle to acquire enough proficiency in Chinese to succeed in the job market. Photo: David Wong

Shalini MahtaniandSusan Collins

Published: 9:00am, 15 May 2019Updated: 9:00am, 15 May 2019

There are 61 private and international schools in Hong Kong and 72 schools under the direct subsidy scheme. DSS schools receive a subsidy per child from the government; private and international schools do not. Most of these schools deliver high-quality education in English.

The government grants these schools land essentially for free. In return for this land, which is being used for an elite few, these schools are obliged to give something back to the community. In more recent lease agreements, the government requires them to set aside not less than 10 per cent of the school’s total fee income to provide scholarships or other financial assistance to deserving students. The amount set aside and its utilisation rate must be accounted for in a statement of accounts submitted annually to the government.

There is no lack of deserving recipients for such assistance in Hong Kong. On a list of 157 economies based on their Gini coefficients – a measure of income inequality – Hong Kong ranks ninth, after Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.

The Hong Kong government has recognised the problem of poverty and has highlighted that the poorest population is Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities. This is also the fastest growing and a much younger population than the Chinese majority.

While education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty, over the last two decades, the ethnic minority population has struggled in the public school system. These children have no Chinese-language support at home and their parents do not understand the necessity of two or three hours of homework every night. Some of them come from a culture that requires some boys to engage in religious worship every night and girls to help extensively with household chores. Many of them encounter discrimination and are labelled unintelligent at school.

Fluency in Chinese is important for future employment, but many of these children lose hope of mastering the language, given their home, cultural and religious responsibilities. Eighty-four per cent of people from Hong Kong ethnic minority communities, excluding foreign domestic helpers, can speak English, whereas only 46 per cent speak Cantonese.

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