School woes help mire Hong Kong ethnic minorities in poverty
Institute of Education study finds handicap for non-Chinese begins at kindergarten, with issue of language main hurdle to finding employment
Inadequate education mires Hong Kong's ethnic minorities in poverty, researchers say, after a survey found that half of the Pakistanis living in Hong Kong are poor compared to one in three South Asians overall and one in five Chinese.
The first study of its kind showed that minority children begin to fall behind from kindergarten, with almost a sixth not attending any kind of pre-school, and the trend continues throughout secondary and tertiary education.
"What we currently have is a discriminatory and unfair education system," said Celeste Yuen Yuet-mui, an associate professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, which conducted the study.
Fourteen per cent of South Asian children did not go to kindergarten compared with 8.5 per cent of Chinese children, according to the survey which is based on the 2011 census.
The research also showed that 13 per cent of South Asians aged 13 to 19 dropped out before Form Five, a rate twice as high as for Chinese counterparts.
Yuen, of the teacher training institute's department of education policy and leadership, said the government had a Chinese-dominated mindset and had failed to introduce a Chinese-as-a-second-language curriculum for ethnic minorities.