直資私小受追捧 逾10人爭1位

jenywswong

直資和私立名校小學一直深受家長追捧，近年直資和私立小學數目不斷增加，受歡迎的直資、私立學校比部分傳統官津名校更難爭入。據明報即將出版的《06/07升小選校全攻略》資料顯示，受訪近60所直資、私立小學中，逾六分之一超過10人爭奪1個學額，當中以傳統私校香港培正小學最激烈，近30人爭1學額。不過有校長分析，直資、私立學位報名情

anxiousparent

From my observation, I think that parents applying for private/DSS schools broadly fall into these categories.

1.  There are parents who are constrained by budget.  Ideally they would want to go to aided/gov't schools.  They apply for DSS/private schools only as insurance.  If one good aided/giv't school and one good DSS/private school accept their kids, they would send their kids to the former.   If an ultra good DSS/private school accept their kids, they would have to struggle very hard to decide.

2. There are parents who keep all their options open and will compare different schools on their own merits, without regard to whether they are DSS/private or aided/govt.

3. There are, however, parents who go straight for the top DSS/private schools and regard aided/gov't schools (even if they are traditional elite schools) really as "last resort" (i.e. insurance policy).   The mentality is largely this - for the few top DSS/private schools, they have good "quality control".  Even if you do not believe that the principal/headmistress can spot a good student (after all, they are only 5-6 years old), you can trust him/her to spot someone with good background - not in terms of being rich - but in terms of being parents who are really educated themselves, and dedicated to the good education of their own kids.  For aided/gov't schools it all depends on luck (except for the first round, where a bit of old boy/old girl syndrome works - but even so a lot of old boys/old girls of traditional elite schools are not sending their kids back) and there is a risk that they/their kids will end up with some "kare lare" kids or "kare lare" parents.  


It is therefore very hard to generalise.  

uncleedward

Dear Anxiousparent

Thanks for your informed observations. From this post and your other posts, you seem to be in the know on the elite schools in Hong Kong. I wish I were wrong in sensing an inkling of slight prejudice against the less educated parents because I am also like that sometimes. While I certainly do not want my children to mix with “kare llare” kids and myself to mingle with “kare lare” parents, but when we say these words, don’t we already sound a bit condescending, if not discriminating? After all, to have children from the less well-off families in elite schools are the cornerstones of a socially upward-mobile community.  

As you said in other posts the quality of most elite schools have been already diluted after the government changed from 5 bands to 3 bands. While one may argue all day long the rights or wrongs from such policy, what I could not figure out was that the government did not seem have a big picture and a consistent logic behind such move. When one tried to interpret the government’s new banding policy as a move away from the traditional elitism towards egalitarianism, the government all of a sudden brought in the new concept of DDS, which was clearly a reversal of the egalitarian move. All elite schools, sooner or later, will be forced to change to DSS. Then we are back to the old days, but not the good old days, when only a student’s individual abilities, rather than financial resources, were tested. The kids from less well-off families undoubtedly will increasingly find it much more difficult than before to enter the elite schools. Is this really the intention of our “capable” government? I simply don’t know.

Lastly we had the升中機制和教學語言檢討, It was then I lost my last sense of pity for Mr Tung when a particular gentleman, a jerk and a moron to me, was appointed as the Chairman in charge of the whole fiasco.

anxiousparent

Don't get me wrong.  The observations reflect what I observe to be the train-of-thought of parents who go straight for DSS/private schools.

In fact if you have read some of my previous posts, one of the questions that have been puzzling me (and which I have not been able to work out) is this - given that DSS/private schools can "choose" their own students (and, in a way, exercise quality control), how come by the end of the 6th year (Primary 6), the quality of students in DSS/private schools somehow all get "evened out" with students in traditionally good aided/gov't schools?   

Does it mean (i) so-called "quality control" in DSS/private school means very little (there is only that much that parents can do - if a kid is smart he/she will always be smart).  (ii) if a school is good (good teachers, good atmosphere, etc) is will always be able to "turn around" students, even though the "quality" of the initial intake may not be uniformly good.

Any observations?

anxiousparent

In fact, a lot of Catholic-run schools in HK are quite against changing to DSS, because that would deprive good students (without an affluent background) of the chance to be educated.

LLT

anxiousparent says:

"There are, however, parents who go straight for the top DSS/private schools and regard aided/gov't schools (even if they are traditional elite schools) really as "last resort" (i.e. insurance policy). The mentality is largely this - for the few top DSS/private schools, they have good "quality control"."

To a certain extent the above statement is true.  It may not, however, be correct when this statement is applied to secondary schools.

In so far as secondary schools are concerned, top government schools regain the 'quality' control.  Past CEE examination results demonstrate that traditional elite DSS/subsidised secondary schools may not even measure up with them.  Take a recent example, 40% of the 10A students this year came from King's Colleage, which is a government secondary school.  This is what an amazing figure!

I am unable to figure out how the top government schools can achieve such billiant result, as their teachers are civil servants that there is neither incentive for them to work hard nor pressure to them in preserving their job.  The only explanation may be that students from the few top government secondary schools are chosen among the best quality students in Hong Kong.

WYmom

anxiousparent 寫道:
Don't get me wrong.  The observations reflect what I observe to be the train-of-thought of parents who go straight for DSS/private schools.

In fact if you have read some of my previous posts, one of the questions that have been puzzling me (and which I have not been able to work out) is this - given that DSS/private schools can "choose" their own students (and, in a way, exercise quality control), how come by the end of the 6th year (Primary 6), the quality of students in DSS/private schools somehow all get "evened out" with students in traditionally good aided/gov't schools?   

Does it mean (i) so-called "quality control" in DSS/private school means very little (there is only that much that parents can do - if a kid is smart he/she will always be smart).  (ii) if a school is good (good teachers, good atmosphere, etc) is will always be able to "turn around" students, even though the "quality" of the initial intake may not be uniformly good.

Any observations?

Though DSS/ private schools can choose their students to maintain quality, parents also choose the schools and we only choose the best if we need to pay.  I believe the top elite schools like DGS, DBS, St. Paul Co-ed can still maintain high quality by choosing "good background" and gifted students, but don't think that the other DSS/ private schools can choose whoever they want.  Some older DSS/private schools are just traditional schools, while some are new non-traditional schools which take times to prove if they work.  Most parents just apply them for "insurance", some high quality students will choose to join good govt schools like LS or Maryknoll. So ultimately quality of common DSS/private schools and govt schools will just even out.

judy

In so far as secondary schools are concerned, top government schools regain the 'quality' control. Past CEE examination results demonstrate that traditional elite DSS/subsidised secondary schools may not even measure up with them. Take a recent example, 40% of the 10A students this year came from King's Colleage, which is a government secondary school. This is what an amazing figure!

其實皇仁一向不是最Top之學校，我計過過去幾年之會考成續，皇仁取A數都一般在1.2-1.4之間，比不上幾家出名之津校，更比不上St. Paul Co-Ed，St. Paul Co-Ed之取A數高据在2個以上，今年更達2.14個，驚人！更重要的是，St. paul Co-Ed仍保持正增值。

Does it mean (i) so-called "quality control" in DSS/private school means very little (there is only that much that parents can do - if a kid is smart he/she will always be smart). (ii) if a school is good (good teachers, good atmosphere, etc) is will always be able to "turn around" students, even though the "quality" of the initial intake may not be uniformly good.

剛提出一例子，St. paul Co-Ed仍保持正增值。其實，要看"quality control"是否有效，只要看小六的學生出路，中五之會考成績即好，中五之會考成績，所有的A grade成績，幾乎落在band1學校之上。

至於小學，可看SFA和APS，"quality control"不能說無效。

"quality control"是有效的，我想這是因為"quality control"除了能選到好學生外，這些好學生也同共同創造了好的讀書環境。至於好教校、好教師、好環境對普通學生有冇帮助，理論上應是有，實際上，我不覺得有。

試一試找一班band2-band3之學生，放到皇仁，看看成效如何，皇仁是政府學校，可做實驗。

LLT

King's Colleage is 英皇書院 whereas 皇仁書院 is known as Queen's Colleage

LLT

"試一試找一班band2-band3之學生，放到皇仁，看看成效如何，皇仁是政府學校，可做實驗。"

Just by way of supplement, the above situation will never occur under the present rule of game – as the government/government subsidized secondary schools are classified into bandings, and for those band 1 schools, first priority ‘luck draw’ is confined to all ‘band 1’ students (who are already classified in their primary schools in accordance with the students’ academic performance) within the district.

Such being the case, you can imagine that all spaces in the top band 1 government /government subsidized secondary schools will be filled up during the first round ‘lucky draw’ by those students with best result in their primary schools.

cow

Judy 寫道:
試一試找一班band2-band3之學生，放到皇仁，看看成效如何，皇仁是政府學校，可做實驗。

以前升中試分X1-X5(派官津校), Y1-Y2(派三年制買位私校)和Z(無位派)。
在1976和1977年,有些特別學位给Y1Y2的同學在官津校包括皇仁/英皇就讀三年,三年後bye bye,只有極小可以留低。皇仁/英皇當時一般只收X1的學生。

tlwtlw888

整體成績是皇仁較英皇為佳，據知早在還有 5 個 banding 之分時，收入英皇的已經是 band 3 學生了，她到現在還薄有名氣是因為尚在吃著祖宗的遺產。

數年前參觀了兩間學校的開放日，負責攤位的學生當然是經過篩選的了，皇仁的學生遠較英皇的來得醒目，無論在應對、招待和態度方面都勝一籌。