what's wrong with local (mother tongue) school? why do we want to send our

summer123

let's discuss it. Thank you.

LengTai

My main concern is too much homework in local school and the way they teach is old fashioned.  Students are asked to memorize the words they learn and they won't get any chance to explore the world and to think out of the box.  You will be ignored if you are not the top tier group.  You may also find the parents spend so much time and money to have the private tutors on their children nowaday.  Therefore, I would rather spend more money and put my kid into a international school, in which my kid would be more happy and without pressure.

WYmom

Most local schools use duck-feeding method to teach, ask kids to memorize everything, they get marks only if they write model answers in exams.  So gradually kids lose their creativity and self-motivation.  This is the main concern I have.

garon

It's too much pressure in the local school, even their parents also under suffering.

Galaxia

I used to study in both local and international school, and I found it's much better, first thing is you don't need to memorize everything from the textbooks, you are expected to use your imagination and be creative.  I was more willing to learn when I was in international school than in local school.

loupou

I sent my kids to local schools for kindie and for my oldest, 2 years of primary.

The thing I disliked the most in the primary school was the HUGE classes. My daughter was one of 38 girls. Very little personal attention could be paid, and school and in order to keep discipline they had 3 class monitors and under-row monitors. These were classmates who would take information down and report on their classmates. These girls wielded an unhealthy amount of power (IMHO) at the age of 6 or 7. My daughter was elected a monitor in P2, but when DH and I saw that she was begining to keep a little notebook to "take down names" of misbehaving classmates, we asked the teacher to let her "step down", it was too much like secret police or something. Of course, it may be almost the only way to keep order in such a huge classroom.

The Chinese learning was too quick for many of the students. My DH said that some of the Chinese characters that were given to the P1 kids to memorize were like what he had in P3 when he was a boy. So, it sets quite a number of kids up for failure, as they try and try and week after week get  50s or 60s on their dictations. It makes kids hate and fear instead of love their language. There was no way in such a big class that the teacher could set things up so the quicker kids could move quickly and the kids not so good at memorizing could move a slower pace.All were treated the same and if you could not keep up, too bad.

I think if the classes in local schools were able to be smaller (say 18-25 kids) then a lot of the problems would go away, there could be more time for real learning in the schools.

I think also that if the schools could not think "harder and quicker is better" it would be better for the kids. I know some school principals say "this is what the parents want", but I think there are a large number of parents who would like things to move more slowly and gently.

The main thing I liked about the primary school my daughter went to was the Maths. They had the kids learning well and enjoying it. I think mostly they taught in a logical and positive way.

I also liked the particular school my daughter went to, because overall it had a loving atmosphere (from the teachers) and they gave my daughter opportunities to shine in things outside of the regular academics (becoming a "school ambassador" and having her participate in public speaking events, because that is one of her strengths).

summer123

loupou

may I konow which school do you send you kids to?

thank you.

puppy_kiwi

summer

check pm pls!!

yyyy

If both ways can bring the children to university level, why don't choose a easier and happier way for them? Actually, money is almost the same if we think as follows:

Int's schools (included in school fee):
1. english - free
2. mandarin - free
3. french - free
4. swimming - free
5. speech & drama - free
6. dance - free
7. study+travel abroad for 3 weeks in summer (only HK$2xxx, save a lot)

Local Schools:
1. english tutor - $$$/month
2. mandarin tutor - $$$/month
3. french tutor - $$$
4. swimming class - $$$
7. over $1xxxx

Prema

My son is 100% attention drawn kid inside a classroom.  I don't think I can put him in a local school which has a class of 38 kids.  He will be very rebellion as I can imagin.  Anyway, I think it is normal that kid need a lot of attention from adults or class teacher.   

loupou

I send my kids to an ESF school: Clear Water Bay School.

My kids might have done better if Cantonese was their mother tongue. My DH is a Hong Kong guy, but I'm not. My reading in Chinese is so-so (I can SLOWLY read many of the Chinese messages on BK) but my writing is not very good at all and I pronounce the characters in Putonghua.

But, I'm glad we tried the local schools. If my kids had been different type, maybe it could have worked out. It was nice having a couple of years when we didn't have to pay school fees for my daughter (hers was a Govt. subsidized school, not DSS).

Some of the local DSS schools are quite nice. I have friends and colleagues who send their children to Logos and GT and they are quite happy w/ them. Unfortunately, my kids didn't get accepted by either of those.

gab

Hi summer123,
I can't stand the HK govt who is constantly changing its educational policies and public exams system.  Too much pressure being on the schools, students and parents.  

alexlui

Copied from Newspaper

立法會政府帳目委員會開會聆訊英基事件，教育統籌局局長李國章(相關新聞 - 網站)說，他認為審計報告對英基學校的批評穩健和可靠，會促請該校仔細研究審計結果，並盡快落實建議的改善措施。審計署署長較早前批評，英基學校協會管理不善，導致財政混亂，並指出該校每年獲政府資助3億元，遠較其他國際學校多，而教師年薪亦平均高達94萬。 而在今早聆訊開始前，李國章和教統局常任秘書長羅范椒芬均申報，他們的子女亦曾就讀過英基學校。

I think education reform is to change local schools into international schools, in terms of teaching methods.  But lot of principals and teachers resist the change.  The teaching methods practising in traditional school has been evolved into an almost perfect systems for the teachers and principals.  That is why they don't want to change.  The system is very easy for them, very difficult for the children and parents.  

What is this "erfect System"?
- Select the best students.
- Kick away the less capable.
- Give them tons of homework, daily tests.
-  Ask the students to do past papers.
- Encourage the parents to employ private tutors.

If any parent here disagree with me, please feel free to express.  

loupou

Hi Alexlui,

I disagree. I think at least the teachers are not happy with the system.  I am sure  many of them they would be much happier if they did not have to correct the endless reams of homework every night and all the tests.

One of my colleague's wife is a primary school teacher, and he tells me that she is often at the school until late every night and on Saturdays correcting all the papers and tests. It's time consuming and depressing. As frustrated as me and my DH were with having to keep track of our daughter's homeworks and corrections, I felt sorry for the teachers who had to correct and comment and fix hundreds of them a day. No wonder there was no room for originality.

I think it's a complex combination of:

*The Dead Weight of Tradition  (traditional Chinese exam oriented learning and testing from the Han dynastry to the present day + the tradition of the British exam systems from 19th and first half of the 20th century = Hong Kong's exam based system)

* The confusing problems of trying to rationalize and reform a system that had grown by increments, with no clear vision of where this reform is supposed to go. The lack of transparency in adminsitration, the fact that there is no publically elected school board makes it all that much harder for voices in the community (especially parents) to make their voices heard. SIGH.

* Some parents & administrators misguided belief that the more and heavier the work-load and more rigorous the exams, the better the system
SIGH again

Vrindavan

yyyy

i do not agree with your cost comparison
i chose int'l school,
but they DO cost a lot more,
hugely expensive i think

Because int'l school do not have money from the Gov,
where are the money ?
The money must be coming from the parents hand !!

Int's schools (included in school fee):
1. english - free - agree

2. mandarin - free - local school too

3. french - free - only at higher forms for int'l school

4. swimming - free - really, i don't believe, you must pay for it, anyway my son was already a very good swimmer at age 3, i teach him

5. speech & drama - free - local school too

6. dance - free - local school too

7. study+travel abroad for 3 weeks in summer (only HK$2xxx, save a lot) - no comment

yyyy

Dear Vrindavan,

Do you agree that there are two kinds of international school: 1. private IS; 2. country-based IS. I am lucky that mine is country-based IS that got subsidizes from their own country. Another example, ESF, got a lot of subsidizes from Hong Kong government.

The items 1-7 I mentioned are all in my child's formal classes, not CCA, therefore, the are all included inside the school fee.  My child is studying in Primary school. I understand the local school may include all items free of charge. That why the majority still choosing the local schools for their children.  What I mean is if you want your children can speak fluent english and mandarin, you need to have private tutor which spend a lot of money but IS can provide a environment for them to practice daily.

I think I am really lucky as I no need to spend extra to keep my child's standard(I am a lazy mom). Her school has done them all for me with professional teachers.

WYmom

yyyy,

School fees of either country based or private international schools are more or less the same in HK, don't know that there is subsidies from country.  Which IS you are referring to?

yyyy

For rich people, $100000, $70000 and $47000 are more or less the same, for poor people like me, they are different.

Sandrine

yyyy,

I still think that international schools are very expensive, a lot more expensive than local schools.  And you've got to have the money to pay for at least the tuition fees, which are the minimum, even if you don't arrange any after-school activities for your kids.  Don't forget that international schools such as CdnIS, FIS, JIS and AIS require either a debenture or an annual levy on top of the school fees. I'm not aware of any subsidies from the government of the home country (except JIS where it's obvious that subsidies are received from the Jap. Gov't for the Japanese section only costs $27,936 a year).  Other than that, the fees of most international schools don't vary that much (except HKIS, CIS & Yew Chung whose fees are at the high end).  I don't see that the so-called country-based schools are cheaper.  Here're the fees of some popular international schools (primary):

French $65,130
Canadian $71,900
Japanese $72,000
Singapore $73,500
Australian $76,700
German Swiss $79,980

Phoenix $49,500
Kiangsu & Chekiang $55,000
CAIS $56,000
ICS $61,000
Chinese $97,630
Hong Kong $117,900
Yew Chung $128,535

ALAL

'The teaching methods practising in traditional school has been evolved into an almost perfect systems for the teachers and principals'. - I agree with your view.

I guess that teacher and principal will rather use more time to correct dictation, huge load of homework, than using activity approach to teach, design student-based curriculum and meet questions and challenge from students. This require not only time, but braveness, and a true heart to educate our next generation.