Problems faced by linguistic minority students in Hong Kong public education system

The position of Hong Kong government is that “all children, regardless of their race, are eligible to study in a public sector school”, and minority children should have the right to choose same schools as other students in Hong Kong. However, many linguistic minority students face language-related difficulties in primary, secondary and post-secondary education, which are listed as follow.

1.      Limited access to public education

Statistics shows that there are very few students from linguistic minorities continue their studies in secondary public sector. There are 5583 students studying in primary public sector, while only 3272 students continue their study in secondary public sector in 2007-2008. Since there are insufficient information of schools provided to minorities' parents, they often have difficulties to admit their children in public schools.

2.      Inadequate language support for language minorities students

Minority students and local students start studying Chinese on different ground. It is unfair that the EDB do not develop a separate Chinese curriculum for them. Without core curriculum, schools are lack of suitable textbooks and materials for linguistic minorities. Teachers find it hard to prepare specialized materials to teach students Chinese as a second language. Also, teachers are not well-trained. They have difficulty in handling minorities students in different ability levels. The classes are large which makes it difficult to provide individual attention to meet different needs.

3.      Difficulty in adopting CMI primary school and access to secondary school

Though government advocates in involving minorities in mainstream CMI education, little or no language support is provided for the minorities in schools. Therefore their literacy in Chinese remains at a low level. It is estimated that there is at least a four-year learning gap between minority students and native speakers in Chinese proficiency. Though there are 16 designated primary schools providing tailor-made Chinese classes for linguistic minorities, it is not enough to cope with the increasing demand of linguistic minorities.

Since CMI students tend to have a lower level of English proficiency, linguistic minorities face a dilemma in having insufficient Chinese and English to learn in both CMI and EMI secondary schools. They are unable to keep up with local students in study. There are a few designated secondary schools which commonly take minority students and have flexible medium of instruction to suit the minorities. Most of them teach students in English, or open a separate EMI section for them. However, they cannot provide a Chinese language learning environment for students which slows down their pace of learning Chinese in school.

4.      Difficulty in admitting to tertiary education and finding a job

Poor performance in Chinese contributed most to the insignificant performance of linguistic minority students in Hong Kong public exam when compared to local students. Therefore very few of them receive offers for tertiary places. Although linguistic minority students in secondary schools mainly study in English, proficiency in Chinese is still essential for most jobs in Hong Kong. However, there is a senior teacher in a designated secondary school estimated the Chinese proficiency of his minority students is no more than equivalent to a P.2 native Chinese-speaking student on average. The comparative weak Chinese skills definitely hinder minority students in finding jobs.

Although Hong Kong government wants to promote Chinese learning and bilingual education in linguistic minorities, it does not have a long-term planning in education. It is suggested that Chinese should be taught in kindergarten in order to build a solid Chinese language background for language minorities. Also, a separate Chinese language system should be set up for linguistic minorities in both education syllabus and exam. Chinese should be taught to language minorities as second language. It helps facilitate teaching and ensures the syllabus is tailor-made for them. Moreover, more vocational trainings should be provided to teachers to ensure teaching quality.

The right of to be educated is described a “multiplier right”, which can ensure the fulfillment of freedom of speech and other rights. Therefore it is important to let linguistic minority students to be fluent and able to function effectively in Chinese, the most common language used in Hong Kong. Without solving the above problems, language barrier will continue to limit minorities in exercising their fundamental rights and participating in Hong Kong society.

Reference:
1. Sarah Carmichael. (2009). Language rights in education: a study of Hong Kong’s linguistic minorities .
Retrieved from http://www.law.hku.hk/ccpl/pub/Documents/Occasional_Paper_19.pdf

2. HKCSS. (2013). 香港的少數族裔系列 (1/2) 教育制度不利少數族裔學生升學. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5-J_RB-_o