Hong Kong is facing a decline in the birth population and the recent wave of emigration. The education sector can also be said to bear the brunt. The vice chairman of the Hong Kong Island School Principals Association, James James, also pointed out that the wave of student dropouts was quite obvious when he attended a radio program on Sunday (29th).
Recently, some elementary schools have taken advantage of Hong Kong as a diverse and inclusive international city, and set up international classes in the new school year to attract more students from ethnic minorities, so as to cope with the challenge of insufficient enrollment while promoting Hong Kong to further build an inclusive society.
The continued decline in the number of school-age students in Hong Kong, coupled with the wave of immigrants and the failure of cross-border students to return to Hong Kong, has caused Hong Kong schools to face a crisis of killing schools in the short term.
At the same time, according to statistics from the Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong's fertility level has generally shown a downward trend in the past 38 years.
The total fertility rate should be 2,100 babies per 1,000 women to reach the level of self-replacement of the population.
However, from 1981 to 2019, the total fertility rate continued to fall below the replacement level.
This shows that the decline in the birth population has become a long-term structural problem in Hong Kong. The academic community must plan as soon as possible to face the increasingly severe challenges.
Face up to the demographic structure and promote social integration
Take the above Shuiqianqian Village Hedong Primary School as an example. The primary school will open international classes this year. I believe this will effectively attract more students to attend.
Furthermore, setting up international classes will benefit both local and non-South China students.
One of the functions of the school as a social education platform is to give students the opportunity to learn communication skills. The two types of students can learn each other’s language and culture.
In particular, as an international city, Hong Kong has a population of nearly 10% of non-Chinese descent. By allowing local school children to get in touch with and learn early and get along with people from different backgrounds and strengthen their understanding, they can enhance their future social and even international competitiveness.
According to the 2016 Census data, after excluding foreign domestic helpers, 86.1% of the non-Chinese population can read English and only 16.9% Chinese. It can be inferred that most non-Chinese parents may not be able to effectively assist their children in learning Chinese. .
Ethnic minorities often lose contact with society due to communication failures. Therefore, for non-Chinese students in international classes, school with local students can more effectively help them integrate into local education, so that they can more easily adapt to Hong Kong society and culture. Except for the blind spots where Chinese parents fail to effectively connect with Hong Kong society.
The bureau can provide corresponding support
Children of ethnic minorities often have to face different problems when they study in mainstream schools, such as religious or cultural background or even mainstream stereotypes, which often leads to isolation or rejection of students. Local international schools have high tuition fees, which are beyond the reach of ordinary families. burden.
When under the free education mechanism, some schools are willing to provide an open and innovative education environment, the bureau can also provide corresponding support to fill the gap in the minority ethnic policy.
For example, relax the flexibility of the number of small classes to reduce the pressure on the school to "run the number" of students.
The school sports guidelines failed to implement to the end. Administrative needs are people-oriented. The government owes students a start-of-school gift. The salary scale of kindergarten teachers is "numbered". Officials must know how to overcome difficulties