The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) today (20 January 2020) released the findings of “A Study on the Challenges Faced by Mainstream Schools in Educating Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong”.

To explore the challenges faced by schools in teaching non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students and to gauge the views of principals and teachers of primary schools so as to identify possible suggestions for improvement, the EOC commissioned Oxfam Hong Kong and the Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research of The University of Hong Kong to conduct a research.

The research team visited nine primary schools from October to November 2018 to interview 9 principals and 24 teachers. Based on the results of the interviews, questionnaires were designed for a citywide survey conducted from February to June 2019. In total, 121 principal questionnaires and 1,230 teacher questionnaires were collected, covering more than 40% of primary schools with NCS students in Hong Kong.

Dr Ferrick CHU, Acting Chief Operations Officer of the EOC said, “The results of the questionnaire survey show that the views of the principals and teachers on the challenges in educating ethnic minorities are very similar. However, we note from the study that the teachers had little confidence in raising the academic standards of NCS students. Only 37.8% of Chinese language teachers and 54.1% of non-Chinese language teachers felt confident in teaching NCS students to achieve comparable levels of standards of Chinese-speaking students. This is indeed worrying and we must identify the root causes with a view to finding the solutions.”

“We also notice from the survey results that there is still room for improvement in the areas of curriculum design, teacher arrangement, teaching and learning support and home-school co-operation,” continued Dr Ferrick CHU.

On the design of curriculum, the questionnaire survey showed that nearly 95% of the principals expressed that Chinese writing of the mainstream curriculum are too demanding for NCS students, while over 95% of Chinese language teachers expressed that the Chinese language subject of the mainstream curriculum is too difficult for NCS students. In addition, the interviewed teachers also indicated that they faced great challenges in ensuring that NCS students were able to keep up with the schedule of the mainstream curriculum and achieve the learning goals of the mainstream curriculum.

In the area of arrangement of teachers, almost 95% of the principals and 97% of Chinese language teachers working at medium concentration schools (with an intake of 31-50 NCS students) agreed that the Chinese learning support programme for NCS students should be provided by teachers experienced in teaching NCS students as a pull-out learning support. Nevertheless, 93.2% of the interviewed principals expressed that they encountered greater difficulties in employing teachers with related skills on teaching Chinese as a second language. Most of the interviewed principals opined that the subsidy provided by the Education Bureau (EDB) was insufficient for employing experienced teachers for supporting NCS students. In many occasions, schools could only employ teaching assistants to take up the jobs, but they were generally in lack of teaching experience and stability, which resulted in NCS students constantly adapting to the teaching style of different teachers. Both interviewed principals and teachers suggested that the EDB should offer professional recognition for specialist teachers for NCS students and create posts in the permanent staff establishment for the co-ordination work of assisting NCS students.

Regarding the assistance provided for teaching and learning of NCS students, 95% of principals and more than 90% of teachers agreed that there was a lack of teaching materials targeting students with Chinese as a second language and corresponding to the mainstream curriculum at the same time. Teachers needed to prepare teaching materials, exercises and adjusted assessments on their own, which increased their workloads. Moreover, 92.6% of the interviewed principals expressed that support from the EDB for NCS students in learning other subjects (e.g. Mathematics and General Studies) was insufficient. Over 95% of interviewed teachers echoed that it is necessary for the EDB to provide support for non-Chinese language subjects. Both Chinese and non-Chinese language teachers indicated that they encountered difficulties in catering for the learning differences between Chinese and NCS students at the same time.

On the co-operation between schools and parents, most of the interviewed principals and teachers pointed out that NCS students lack family support and the EDB did not provide special support measures or guidance in communicating with NCS parents and promoting cultural integration. Almost all principals expressed that there should be more flexibility in using the subsidy to enhance the communication between NCS parents and schools and to organise cultural exchange activities. Furthermore, 95% of principals and nearly 90% of teachers conveyed that NCS students who had never received any local kindergarten education encountered the most difficulty in adapting to the mainstream curriculum.

Dr Ferrick Chu said, “From the results of the questionnaire survey and the mainstream primary school cases we interviewed, we tried to find out the successful factors for providing NCS students with equal learning opportunities. We hope that through this study, we can offer suggestions for the formulation of policy directions in supporting NCS students.”

Below are some of the recommendations made by the research team:
‧Increase the amount of funding for schools to employ Assistant Primary School Master/Mistress teachers to provide learning enrichment and support to NCS students;
‧Provide the amount of funding based on the number of NCS students and provide a minimum funding of HK$500,000 to schools with an intake of less than 10 NCS students;
‧Provide an additional subsidy to enable schools to support NCS students to learn non-Chinese language subjects;
‧Set up a coordinator position (e.g. NCSCO) and add a teaching position (e.g. NCSST) in the school system so that schools can assign a teacher to co-ordinate the support for NCS students, line up a support team and organise cultural integration activities in schools;
‧Provide a complete set of teaching materials, which can match with the mainstream curriculum and the “Chinese Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework”;
‧Set up an online platform, which allows schools to upload and share teaching resources designed for NCS students;
‧Facilitate continuous and close collaboration between universities and schools, and organise a teaching support team to provide school-based support to schools with NCS students;
‧Encourage NCS parents to let their children study in kindergartens and provide summer bridging programme for NCS kindergarteners to adapt to a new learning environment over the transition period;
‧Suggest non-governmental organisations to provide home-school cooperation measures;
‧Suggest ethnic minority organisations to help NCS students and their families to integrate into the mainstream society.

Dr Ferrick CHU concluded, “We attach great importance to education for ethnic minorities, who are integral members of Hong Kong. The Government has a responsibility to provide equal opportunities for NCS students to receive education in Hong Kong. While the formulation of education policies is important, stakeholders also have a role to play in helping ethnic minorities integrate into schools and society. We will continue to liaise closely with the Government and various stakeholders to follow up on the recommendations of this report, with an aim to close the learning gap between the NCS and Chinese-speaking students and to improve NCS students’ Chinese language proficiency.”

For details of the study, please click the following link:
https://www.eoc.org.hk/en/policy-advocacy-and-research/research-reports/2020-4

Photo caption:

(from left) Dr Cathy HUNG, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Chinese Language Education and Research, The University of Hong Kong; Dr Elizabeth LOH, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong; Ms Kalina TSANG, Director of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan Programme, Oxfam Hong Kong; and Dr Ferrick CHU Chung-man, Acting Chief Operations Officer of the EOC presented the findings of “A Study on the Challenges Faced by Mainstream Schools in Educating Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong” in the press conference today (20 January 2020).

-------------------------------

Equal Opportunities Commission
20 January 2020