Children born to mainland mothers 'a challenge'
New Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower Raymond Wong Hung-chiu says the need to cater for children born in Hong Kong to mainland mothers poses 'a challenge'.
Formerly the Commissioner Against Corruption, Mr Wong this week broke his silence on education issues for the first time since taking over from Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun in November. Mr Wong was joined by two other education officials in a press briefing on a range of issues.
He said the EMB was in the process of collecting data to plan for the entry of children who were born in Hong Kong to mainland parents.
'It's difficult to know whether these children will come to Hong Kong and if they do, when they will come,' he said.
Security bureau figures show the number of children born in Hong Kong to parents without identity cards has been increasing exponentially over the past five years, rising from 620 in 2001 to 9,237 in 2005, accounting for almost one in every six births that year.
But Mr Wong said Hong Kong's school system had been flexible enough to accommodate the influx of children from the mainland since the handover and some mainland parents might choose not to send their children to schools here after all.
Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower Betty Ip Tsang Chui-hing said that when deciding whether to send their young children to Hong Kong, mainland parents would consider security and whether their children would be cared for. Mainland students usually came to Hong Kong for secondary education.
On the kindergarten voucher scheme, which was revealed by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in October, Mr Wong said details would be released at the end of this month, including how and where eligible parents could get hold of the vouchers. Seminars on the details of the scheme would be organised for parents next month.
The permanent secretary said very little that was new and by and large stuck to the tried-and-tested bureau line on controversial issues.
He said he was not against small classes but there was as yet no conclusive evidence in favour of them and the EMB had to be prudent in committing any large-scale investment. Progress of pilot schemes on teaching small classes would be reported next month.
Mr Wong also said that, while he understood educators' concerns about school closures, the government had to take into consideration other needs of the society in allocating resources, including health and care of the elderly. 'Does improving education services necessarily involve the construction of more schools?' Mr Wong asked.
In response to the report submitted by the Teacher Work Committee last month on teachers' workload and stress, Mr Wong said he would step up communication with teachers and diversify the pool of schools the EMB included in its pilot studies.
