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Nora Tong

There are certain myths about Direct Subsidy Scheme schools.

The first is that traditional elite schools that have switched over to the scheme in recent years, including St Paul's Co-Educational College and Diocesan Boys' School, are typical DSS schools.

In fact, established primary and secondary  schools make up a minority of those in the scheme, which includes former private institutes and schools with a so-called 'leftist' inclination.

There are also some newcomers that boast a distinctive mission, such as to cater for gifted children or promote the much-touted idea of 'whole-person education'.

Then there is the mistaken belief  that DSS schools usually charge astronomical fees.

There are 73 DSS schools in the 2006-07 school year, which will rise to 75 next year, and of the 55 secondary schools, most charge about HK$10,000 a year. The exceptions are the few traditional elite schools, which charge an average of $30,000 a year. The range overall is between $2,500 and $48,000.

The misperceptions  probably  stem from the privileges they enjoy. Not only do they charge fees on top of the subsidy given to aided schools, they also have more autonomy in management, finances, curriculum and recruitment of students and teachers.

Ip Kin-yuen, principal of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, a senior secondary college advocating arts education that opened last year, said DSS schools filled the gap left behind by traditional schools.

'The senior secondary curriculum  is narrow, often leaving out arts and music lessons. But some students are interested in these subjects and society needs creative talents,' he said.

As well as offering an arts curriculum for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and the A-Levels, the school runs compulsory classes in various aspects of arts, including multimedia performance arts and film and digital technology.

Prominent figures in the creative industry are also invited to share their experiences with students.

Mr Ip said academic and arts education complemented each other. 'It's important for students to be able to think critically and develop their own world views. Learning artistic techniques is far from enough,' he said.

Hong Kong Baptist University Affiliated School Wong Kam Fai Secondary and Primary School, in Sha Tin, positions itself between international and local schools. The school is a pioneer in educating parents on a variety of topics from story-telling skills and ways to build children's self-esteem to charting the career path of young people.

Principal Lilian Chan Lui Ling-yee said while the school adopted an activity-based approach to learning, students were not let loose. 'We have expectations for students' moral behaviour but we won't be too rigid,' she said.

Mrs Chan said DSS schools in general enjoyed flexibility in allocating resources as well as determining class sizes and the language of instruction.

In language teaching, her school follows an Ontario curriculum for teaching English, while poetry and the classics are taught in Chinese. Putonghua is used for Chinese classes, English for science and Cantonese for subjects in 'personal and social development' that require a deeper level of thinking.

Poon Chun-kau, head of HKFYG Lee Shau Kee College, said his school focused on developing students' academic calibre. Pupils learned English in language classes and daily reading sessions, during which they had to read English books. They also had to keep a diary in English.

'We are knowledge-based,' he said. 'If a child is sports-oriented, this may not be the school for him or her.'

The Tin Shui Wai school, which draws students mainly from the northern part of the New Territories,  seeks to nurture attributes Mr Poon considers to be lacking in young people in Hong Kong. These are: self-directedness, self-discipline and self-advocacy.

The school also runs a 'Ladies-and-Gentlemen' programme to introduce etiquette. Mr Poon said the initiative, together with a focus on academics, aimed to instil a sense of confidence in his students, many of whom came from a low socio-economic background.

Cheung Kwok-wah, an assistant professor of education at the University of Hong Kong, said DSS schools varied a great deal in their traditions and features.

'Parents should know the qualities of their children and choose a school that is suitable for them,' he said.

Dr Cheung, formerly the head of the semi-governmental Committee on Home-School Co-operation, advised parents should visit schools on open days, view school websites or leaflets and talk to teachers and principals to get a taste of what schools had to offer.

He said aided schools did not necessarily compare unfavourably to DSS schools in terms of quality, neither were newly-founded DSS schools necessarily inferior to more established ones. Teachers in new schools were usually committed to the vision espoused by the administration, he said.

'Ultimately it's the personality and the ability of a child that should be taken into account in deciding the choice of a school,' Dr Cheung said.



In a class of their own