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Equal access to kindergartens still elusive for non-Chinese children
EOC Chairperson, Mr Ricky CHU Man-kin published an article in the South China Morning Post on 20 November 2021, calling on kindergartens to adopt racially inclusive practices.
While parents of two-year-olds have finished submitting applications for kindergarten places for the 2022-23 school year and begin the anxious wait for results, the EOC continues to hear concerns about some kindergartens conducting interviews only in Cantonese.
This is despite the fact that the Education Bureau has taken significant steps in the last two years to improve information access for non-Chinese parents, as well as strengthened its guidelines for kindergartens to provide support for non-Chinese students and parents, including language support or allowance during admission interviews.
“Guidelines are insufficient unless backed by stringent monitoring,” wrote Mr Chu. “How can a child of two who has only been in a mother-tongue-language environment be expected to speak a different language, let alone be judged based on it? We therefore have recommended on several occasions that other means be used to test the suitability of an applicant, such as observation during playtime.”
Another disturbing practice that has come to the EOC’s attention is the separation of Chinese and non-Chinese students into different classes or different sessions.
As Mr Chu noted, “Often, the purported reason for the arrangement is that non-Chinese students would have difficulty coping if they do not understand Cantonese or that the child would feel more comfortable if he/she is with students from a similar background. However, this is not ideal at all for language learning.”
Indeed, it is the wish of many ethnic minority parents to get an immersed Chinese language kindergarten education for their child, a goal that would set the child up for success in Hong Kong’s education system and eventually in the job market.
Mr Chu continued, “There is a need for kindergarten teachers and administrators to be adequately trained to handle mixed, diverse classrooms, which can both facilitate language acquisition and prevent the formation of stereotypical thinking among children from an early age.”
