It is an offence for parents not to send their children to school in Hong Kong. However, more parents have opted for home schooling, out of dissatisfaction with the education system or other considerations. This is not helped by the government’s ambiguous position on mandatory education.

Under the Education Ordinance, parents who refuse to send their children to school without good reason face a fine of HK$10,000 and three months in jail. What makes a good reason is of course open to debate. The issue was brought under the spotlight when a 43-year-old father sought school exemption for his 11-year-old son. He believed the boy would learn more from courses tailor-made by a memory training centre rather than “spoon-feeding education”. Be that as it may, few parents would go to the extreme to boycott schooling. Those who do so are usually dissatisfied with the education system and think their children will be better off learning from them at home than at schools. But there is more to schooling. Apart from intellectual development, it is also a process through which children socialise and learn to act responsibly in society.