difference between private and international school

Jasmine11

Hello,

As I wasn't raised in Hk, thus not exactly familiar with the HK school system, though I would have to say it is not the most perfect system with my preliminary study of it from news and forums.

Anyways, I have a question and wonder if anyone can share some insight/guidance with me. I have two young children, and I definitely know that I do not appreciate the level of school works in most local schools, thus I am more towards activity based approach. Given that, can anyone help clarified the major difference between private and international school? Although the kids have overseas passport, but unlikely we will go back in the near future(eg within 5 years)

I believe there a few DSS/private with train-through system, is there any difference between those graduates and local govt school graduates when applying for university? Same question for int'l school, any difference?

With two kids, tuition fee is also a factor to be consider, thus I want understand more between the different types of school.

Million thanks for your help

poonseelai

Both private independent schools ("PIS") and international schools can choose their own curriculum.  The key difference is their student mix: international - 30% local vs PIS 70% local.  The definition of local students may vary for each school.

DSS - receives subsidy from government.  At least 50% of students need to take DSE.

Students taking DSE will be under the jupas system when applying for local universities.  Other local students will be under non-jupas.  The allocation of subsidized university places between jupas and non-jupas is roughly 80% vs 20%.

Jasmine11

Thanks a lot for your clarification😊

Now I understand there's two routes to university, however, I still have some questions and wonder if you can help clarify.

If the secondary school adopt IB curriculum, then the student would apply under the non jupas, for local gov't school, they would apply under jupas with their DSE result. What I am not clear is, for those DSS/private whom claims they adopt activity based approach/curriculum, will those student ultimately need to take the DSE? If so, is it reasonably to assume they would be rather disadvantage as the local govt school student are usually very familiar with the format/style as most of them are 操慣paper? Or I worried too much?

Aside from calling each school, do u know where I can find if their students will ultimately take the DSE or non jupas route? Cause there's a few school that I am interested claims their curriculum have been revised to have a balance of both international and local view, or activity based curriculum, but if ultimately the kid need to take DSE, then the kid might not be able to compete with local govt school whom have been very academic focused.

Many thanks for your help