Hold all Hong Kong schools to the same English standards, or risk widening the wealth gap

The standard and instruction of English varies widely across Hong Kong schools, an educational disparity that cuts neatly across income classes and reinforces the wealth gap. It’s time to address this and give every child in Asia’s ‘world city’ a chance

Robert Badal

Published: 6:30am, 21 Dec 2019

Why you can trust SCMP

Hong Kong students have been ranked third again in Asian IELTS English test scores, a measure of proficiency in the language. But what does this result actually mean?

For starters, those who take the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) test tend to be those planning to further their studies abroad. So, are the test scores representative of the English proficiency of the average Hong Kong student? Absolutely not.

There is no average Hong Kong student because there is no average Hong Kong school. There are international schools and Education Bureau schools. The latter are subdivided – into schools under the subsidised, grant or direct subsidy schemes – and academically ranked in bands from one to three. The system is a confederation of individual schools rather than an organised entity.

In Hong Kong’s market-based system, each school aims to attract the best students, with parents also competing to get their children into the best schools possible. This competitive process transforms school administrators into sales managers. At the top of the food chain are the astoundingly expensive international schools, which exist outside the band-ranking universe.

Yet, rankings are only part of the story. Bottom-ranked schools also share denominators such as having more children from lower-income families or from the mainland. The increasing numbers of mainland children enrolling in Hong Kong schools is part of Hongkongers’ antipathy for mainlanders.

But even bottom-ranked schools need to attract students, so administrators welcome children from the mainland. But they often start off with a poorer command of English, if at all, and lack motivation to read English books, and this forces teachers to dumb down instruction.

I have been tutoring since 2014 and have a growing network of teachers, including those under the Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme, and parents, having served as a primary schoolteacher training consultant. I maintain an extensive collection of exams, worksheets and textbooks.

In my experience, the standard and instruction of English vary enormously across schools, with direct comparisons hindered by the non-standardisation of examinations and a culture of secrecy. Schools’ reluctance to participate in comparative research is known.

Dr Mark Bray, Unesco’s chair of comparative education and a former dean of education at the University of Hong Kong, charitably calls this “research fatigue”, but my experience tells me something different.

The schools simply do not want any bad news getting out. Students’ English proficiency may be poor, but dumbed-down exams present the illusion that everything is fine. The result is an institutionalised disparity between the upper and lower income classes.

According to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 30.5 per cent of secondary school students failed to achieve a basic competency in English in the 2013 Territory‐wide System Assessment. I would bet there is a strong economic correlation.

Falling standards of English should concern us all

Those who say standard English does not matter unwittingly enable this educational disparity, which maintains the economic gulf. They might be sincere, but they have probably never had to help parents desperate for their children to go to a top university, or worked in multinational corporations where good English equals upwards mobility. I have. My experience puts me firmly in the “teach and test standard English” camp.

The wealthy do not bother debating this. They know the real world is competitive and judgmental, and that English proficiency is part of that judgment. They want their children to have a great future. So their children go to international schools, take standardised tests and go on to top universities.

Every child in Asia’s “world city” deserves a chance. Every school in Hong Kong needs to be held to the same standards of English. It is time to be transparent about Hong Kong’s educational disparity – and take action to rectify it.

Los Angeles native Robert Badal is an author, teacher and former corporate consultant and CEO speech-writer

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