ESF Cat 1 and Cat 2

JDM

There is this discussion in different threads about how ESF put students in Cat 1 and Cat 2, which causes confusion to parents.
Although my son studying in ESF Kinder was in the first-round ESF Primary interview and was subsequently given an offer, I have no idea if he is in fact in Cat 1 or Cat 2.
In my case, my son was born in HK. Both my son and I hold Canadian passports. I DON'T think that he is in Cat 2 as some other parents suggested. Based on all the facts recorded in the application form, he has the same "background" as a child coming from a foreign expat family. "Race" of parents is not recorded in the application form, and even if it does, it should not be used for categorization as having Chinese as the orginal race does not imply the situation of the current generation, e.g. the parents could well be foreign born and raised already.

popolung

Holding overseas passport with an overseas citizenship, plus Native English Speaker will already put you in Cat 1. Study in ESF Kinder give you a priority to interview in Cat 1.

For ESF Kinder, since it is also a PIS like RC so they don't need to have catergoization, but as most parents want their kids to go to ESF Primary School, so they will still in turn classified your kid into Cat 1 or Cat 2. This explain why in the Kinder you don't know if your son is Cat 1 or Cat 2, and no one will tell you unless you ask.

Mighty

ESF website states very clearly what is Cat 1 and what is Cat 2.  

CAT ONE  Children who speak English as a first or alternative language but do not speak Cantonese and/or read and write Chinese characters.

Holding a foreign passport does not help.  This is from personal experience :-

Child A : HKSAR passport holder but does not speak or write Chinese (Cat 1)
Child B : Australian passport holder but speaks Mandarin (can read some as well) and English at the same time (Cat 2)

BabyMiMi

For EFS Kinder, the Cat. was clearly chopped on the return slip of the application form...

Mornington

Dear Popolung

Did you know the category for your kid (as referred in BabyMiMi below) when you were informed of offer to ESF kinder ?


Dear BabyMiMi

Thanks for telling us that "the Cat. was clearly chopped on the return slip of the application form". Do you have any personal experience as referred in Mighty's thread below?  Do you think there are improvements which ESF need to consider particularly in determining or setting up criteria for Category 1 /2?


Dear Mighty

Instead of saying correct or wrong here,  I want to point out the Category system set out by ESF may not be clear/good enough when assessing which category a child pertains to.  This system, without having considered the (dual) nationality of a kid, may give back ESF an absolute authority when they consider it is Cat 1 or Cat 2.

For Child A, it does sound it satisfies Cat 1 criteria if HK family parents speak to the kid in English all the time.  The parents would feel tough and have hard time because they needed to give up speaking in cantonese to their kid.   In my personal opinion, in doing this it would reduce the kid's ability to listen/speak cantonese as s/he needs to grow up in HK.  
Apart from that, has the Child lived in overseas for a period of time and hold other foreign passport?

For Child B, it would sound unreasonable / illogical because students would not only learn English but also mandarine at ESF kinder.  It is surprised if ESF do really treat this kid as Cat 2.  But it would probably fail if s/he spoke mandarine during the ESP P1 interview.

No matter it is Cat 1 or Cat 2 or whether evetually admitted by ESF, in my opinion, English are an important language for next decades whilst mandarine become more common in HK and a more popular language to be learnt by foreigners.  

The above are purely my opinion.  Hope we can share our view.

BR

JDM

This seems to be the "dangerous" fact:
This system ...... may give back ESF an absolute authority when they consider it is Cat 1 or Cat 2.

Mighty

To JDM, why is it 'dangerous'?  If the school does not have the entire authority to decide what is considered as Cat. 1 and Cat. 2, everything will get messed up.  Just look at the education policies / systems today in Hong Kong.... the so called authorities keep on changing and swapping their minds!!

To Mornington : I think it is good that ESF does not put into consideration of dual nationalities.  Their main concept is to let children who do not fit into the local system to have the priority to get into the ESF system.  This concept was set up a long time ago where there were so many expatriate children who were brought to Hong Kong by their parents because of their jobs etc before the handover.  I am sure you know ESF was called 英童学校　before.  Why local parents can give up their own mother tongue and speak to their children in a foreign language even to their themselves is beyond my understanding.  
To answer one of your questions : Child A does not have any foreign passport and had applied ESF using HKSAR passport.

popolung

原帖由 Mornington 於 09-2-10 01:18 發表
Dear Popolung

Did you know the category for your kid (as referred in BabyMiMi below) when you were informed of offer to ESF kinder ?


Dear BabyMiMi

Thanks for telling us that "the Cat. was clearly ...

No I think I don't see that on the letter 2 years ago.

And i think besides nationality, and also what you wrote on the form about your kids language capaibility, the real langauge your kid spoke and his / her capability duing the interview is also important. So this is something you need to train your kid from now on, if you are not native english speaker, and something that you can fake during the interview, right?