2 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong to review letting more semi-private schools offer non-local curriculum
The Hong Kong government will review whether to allow more semi-private secondary schools to offer a non-local curriculum on a self-financing basis, the education minister has said.
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Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin on Wednesday also dismissed a call to let non-locals attend public primary and secondary schools amid a local student population decline, explaining that the language of instruction was Cantonese and the curriculum targeted Hongkongers.
Choi revealed the syllabus plan in a reply to lawmaker Peter Douglas Koon Ho-ming, who asked whether authorities would let schools under the direct subsidy scheme (DSS) allocate more places to those studying a non-local curriculum.
'We now let international schools and DSS schools offer the International Baccalaureate (IB), but parents, particularly those coming from overseas, find the places to be insufficient ... will authorities increase the relevant places in DSS schools?' Koon said in a Legislative Council meeting.
Choi said the government would only provide subsidies to public schools to offer the local curriculum.
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The city's university entrance examination, the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE), was for local students to pursue further studies, she noted.
But Choi said that authorities 'in the long run' would review whether more DSS schools, which are semi-private, could be allowed to provide non-local curriculum on a self-financing basis as part of the institutions' 'two routes' of curriculum offer.
