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Legislators claim education system neglects minorities

May Chan

Legislators yesterday accused the government of neglecting the education needs of minorities after a Hong Kong Muslim leader warned of a 'time bomb' of disaffected youths from ethnic groups.

Legislator Cheung Man-kwong said there was 'downright discrimination' in the education system against minority groups.

United Muslim Association of Hong Kong chairman Mohamed Alli Din was reported in yesterday's South China Morning Post as saying that more young people from ethnic minorities were getting involved in gangs because they were not getting a proper education in mainstream schools.

He warned of a 'time bomb' following the murder of a 22-year-old Pakistani man in a gang feud on Sunday. Two suspects have been arrested over the knife attack.

Mr Cheung said: 'The government may just as well have dumped them, as lessons in mainstream schools are conducted in Cantonese.'

He said most of the minority students could barely read Chinese, although they might be able to speak Cantonese.

'Only the rich can afford to go to international or private schools to get educated properly. Unfortunately, the minority families are usually very poor,' Mr Cheung said.

The government provides a subsidy to all Hong Kong children for the first nine years of their education in any public school. Schools set up by minority groups do not receive any government subsidy and have to charge students to stay in business.

Mr Cheung urged the government to extend the subsidy to schools set up by minority groups.

'Unlike other international schools, like the Canadian, British and Korean, these minorities do not have overseas financial support and their students have to shoulder the full school fee. Most of the minority families are living on meagre incomes and can hardly afford the fees. The government should subsidise them as they have the right to be educated, being Hong Kong citizens,' he said.

Mr Din said the Education Department had turned down such proposals before.

'It simply put our school under the category of 'international schools' and rejected our proposal. It is ridiculous,' he said.

'The government has been answering our needs with empty promises. I hope that it would really do something to improve our education this time.'

Democrat legislator Fred Li Wah-ming suggested the government model a system on Canada by stationing Southeast Asian social workers in schools and community centres.

'It's high time the government took action to foster integration between the local community and the minorities,' he said.

But the Education and Manpower Bureau said it was the government's policy to integrate ethnic minority children into mainstream schools.

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