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At stake? Equal learning for all

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As part of the government's drive to cut its budget deficit, Education Secretary Arthur Li Kwok-cheung must reduce education spending by about 5 per cent. The English Schools Foundation (ESF), with its well-equipped schools serving the seemingly well-heeled and foreign communities, is an obvious target.

The independently managed network of 16 schools offers probably the best example of top-level education in the publicly funded sector in Hong Kong. It is now threatened by Professor Li's insistence that the government review the ESF's grant of about $300 million this year, and possibly trim or scrap it.

The suggestion has caused enormous uncertainty among those who rely on these schools. Parents' views are being surveyed by Parent Teacher Associations, and even 10-year-olds are discussing whether they might have to leave their schools. That will depend on the outcome of Professor Li's review and their parents' ability to pay fees that, without the subsidy, would have to be raised by up to 40 per cent.

The ESF was set up by government ordinance in 1967 to provide native English-language education to all who could benefit from it. In the following two decades, it took over government schools that had catered to non-Chinese and built new schools. This growth was subsidised under the 'parity of subsidy' principle - which said children in ESF schools should be subsidised to the same degree as those in local aided schools. This support is currently frozen at 1999 levels. An extra level of quality above local schools - such as smaller classes - is funded by fees.

This parity is now at stake. The questions that should be asked today, when Professor Li meets ESF leaders, is whether Hong Kong still needs a subsidised foundation, and if it does, what level of support it should receive.

The number of ESF students has grown over the past decade from about 7,000 to 11,500, and the quality of education has improved. No education system is without its problems, and as the inspection of Beacon Hill School showed, that includes the ESF. In November, inspectors found the primary school had serious weaknesses in leadership and learning, prompting the principal's resignation. But ESF schools have on the whole kept well abreast of international trends in teaching and learning. Students generally finish their schooling with a well-rounded education and normally with a string of impressive public exam results to propel them to good universities both locally and around the world.

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