除了學費及名氣, 津校與直資/私校既分別

kaifu

I share some of your views regarding the benefits of studying in DSS/private schools.  But as my boy has not been successful so far in the current round of interview excercises, I have been rethinking about the differences between DSS/private and govt/aided schools.
I am actually facing a dilemma myself.  While I also want my son to go to a school with students coming from similar family background, I myself was actually growing up in one of the public estates.  I went to primary and secondary schools near my home with classmates coming from China when they were little.  I got into univserity, together with some of my "mainland" classmates.  Most of us are doing fine today with respectable jobs and stable income - essentially upgrading us to the "middle-class" level.  
So I have been asking myself: why don't we want our kids to go through something similar?  I had pretty happy school life and turned out to be quite successful.  Is it really good for them to grow up with a bunch of well-protected midlle class kids?   
Anyone sharing the same situation with me out there?

原帖由 beemaggie221 於 08-10-12 01:49 發表
唔好意思.  想問問津校與直資/私校既分別 :直資/私校要比學費及名氣外, 課程跟師資等是否有距離 ?  可否講下你們選直資/私校而唔選津校既原因.
以下是我個人觀點, 唔知大家有無同感:

津校 :
政府派位機制
學生較雜  ...

kaifu

Dear siuwa,
I hope you don't teach this kind of values to your kids.  We have hired a couple of domestic helpers in the past.  They are both new immigrants from Mainland living in a nearby public estate, and the janitor working in our building also has a similar background.  To us, they are nothing like what  you described below.  I was deeply saddened by this kind of comments and I regret that I have brought this issue up here!

原帖由 siuwa 於 08-10-12 12:02 發表
"但而家好多佢地既父母懶惰, 成日想不勞而穫, 聲大又口臭."  

[ 本帖最後由 kaifu 於 08-10-12 23:29 編輯 ]

kaifu

There seems to be a myth among us that DSS/private schools in general offer higher quality education than govt/subsidized schools.  However, except for the very few brand-name schools which were converted from subsidized system recently, most of the other DSS/private schools are relatively new without really a "name".  While they may have very good resources like infrastructures and innovative teaching and ECA programs, their human resources may not be as strong as most parents think.  Most of their teachers are relatively new graduates and have little teaching experience.  Good and experienced teachers in the govt/subsidized schools are unlikely leave their jobs for the new DSS/private schools, otherwise they may lose their retirement benefits, among others. Almost all teachers in the DSS/private schools are on still contracts (renewed yearly), even after several years of teaching in the same school.  It may be easy to get rid of bad teachers but it is difficult to retain good teachers too.  Since their salary mechanisms are more flexible, some DSS/private schools can offer a much higher salary to recruit good teachers from another school.      
How about the through-train system as promoted by many of those schools as a selling point?
Again, those schools (except for DBS, DGS, Ying Wa, SPCC, etc) are new and have not produced any graduates for people to assess their high school qualities.  It may be too late to find out when our kids are in P4/5 that their through-train secondary school performs poorly in terms of university admission!
Please don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that those DSS/private schools are not worthy for us to apply.  Some of them will be successful, but only time can tell.  Since some parents (ourselves included) appeared to be very disappointed after their kids were rejected at the first round of interviews, I am trying to put forward some rational arguments for everyone to think positively.  To us, going through the interviews with our son has been a very rewarding experience.  We saw him growing up amazingly quickly during this period.  If handled properly, you can improve the relationship with your kids as you prepare the profolio and interviews with them.  
I hope everyone is enjoying this process and get the most out of it, even though your kid may not be very successful with the interviews.  Afterall, this is definitely more fun than going through the SARS period while you were expecting your babies!  
God bless the 2003 kids and their parents!

[ 本帖最後由 kaifu 於 08-10-13 13:35 編輯 ]

kaifu

It is rather fair to "generalize" that those through-train schools which started as a DSS on Day 1 will need many years to demonstrate whether they can deliver what they promise.  At this stage they simply don't have a track record.   Based on what we know about the hiring systems in different schools, there are legitimate reasons to question the stability and quality of the teaching staff in the new DSS schools, since it also takes a long time  to establish a good team of teachers in both their primary and secondary sections.   
On the other hand, the brand-name DSS schools were all formerly successful subsidized schools (as far as I know, no govt schools have been and will be converted to DSS/private schools).  They already have well-established teaching teams and a long history of excellent track record.  

原帖由 mow-mow 於 08-10-13 16:14 發表
I am sorry to say that the arguments here are rather futile.
There are good DSS / private schools as well as bad ones, & the same is true for government / subsidised schools.
You can only compare like ...

[ 本帖最後由 kaifu 於 08-10-13 17:02 編輯 ]

kaifu

Given the prospect of getting into Ying Wah, DBS or SPCC secondary sections, all of which having a good track record, I don't think we need to argue about why their primary sections became our favorite picks.  
What I want to "generalize" ( i am not sure if it is a good word to use) is that those ALL-NEW DSS through-train schools may not neccessarily turn out to be what people expect at the very beginning, especially for their secondary sections.  There is a certain degree of "risk" if we put our kids there.  This may be a factor that some parents want to consider before they finalize which school they send their kids to.  On the other hand, some parents may have full confidence in those schools for different good reasons.  Please be reminded that not everyone holds the same view and this is perfectly natural!  Take it easy, mow-mow.

原帖由 mow-mow 於 08-10-13 17:37 發表
I do agree with some of what you are saying.
However, not all brand name DSS were formerly successful subsidised schools.
DBS primary school is effectively a brand new school as it wasn't converted fr ...

[ 本帖最後由 kaifu 於 08-10-13 19:45 編輯 ]