Education for all
In colonial days, the expatriate elite, whose school fees were met by employers, never saw the need for low-cost education for other Westerners. An unspoken arrogance prevailed: that Hong Kong did not need the type of foreigners who lacked the means to pay for schooling.
Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong has attracted a new type of expatriate, such as small businessmen, teachers, technicians and artists. But these people do not enjoy the privileges of the traditional elite. International school fees are often beyond their budget. Such expatriates have found Lamma Island a natural home.
Unlike most of their colonial predecessors, many want their children to live within the local community and learn Chinese.
North Lamma Primary School is where the dam is bursting. Long-term international residents are exercising their right to free education by enrolling their children, for financial and cultural reasons as well as convenience. For the first time, local Primary One children are outnumbered.
Previously, the school grudgingly accepted the small number of such pupils. No special provisions were made - they were marked down for weakness in Chinese, not challenged by English lessons.
The school is now under the leadership of Jenny Yuen Chun-ni, a principal of unusual conscience who could not tolerate seeing her pupils not learning, and unhappy. She decided to split her Primary One pupils into two streams - one taught in Chinese, the other in English.
Integrating international and local children in a local school is a great ideal. But, as Ms Yuen has found, it is not easy. The Education Department insists that the Lamma school should primarily serve the local community but support the international children by teaching flexibly.
Ms Yuen knows that in reality this is difficult, given many local teachers' lack of experience in adjusting teaching to varied abilities, let alone children who cannot understand their language.
Hong Kong's strength lies in its being an international city. On Lamma, too, the economy's strength is increasingly dependent on a melting pot of Western, Asian and mixed-race residents.
If it is to thrive, to the further benefit of every resident, community leaders and the government should plan low-cost education for all who need it - and support pioneers such as Ms Yuen.
This needs to happen beyond Lamma, wherever there are clusters of ethnic minority families. It is time Hong Kong seriously addressed the issue of providing affordable education to non-Chinese residents' children through arrangements that also facilitate interaction with Chinese children.
