Is Hong Kong's education 'spoon-fed?' Parents to meet officials over bid to have son educated outside mainstream system
Tutor of Nathan Lee believes what she is offering at her unorthodox centre works, but thinks officials will keep pressing the boy to attend a mainstream school
The parents who are applying for their 11-year-old son to be exempted from “spoon-fed” mainstream education will meet with officials from the Education Bureau tomorrow evening.
If they can convince officials that a homeschooling-style curriculum will work with the boy, the bureau will not force the boy to go to a mainstream school, said Miki Lee Yuk-kuen, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Memory Study Association and the boy’s private instructor, who may also attend the meeting.
“We don’t need to prove ourselves,” said Lee yesterday. “Many of our students could take the [Test of English as a Foreign Language] in just Form 1. I’ve been giving lectures in the Education Bureau every year.”
Lee said she had already designed a curriculum for young Nathan Lee For-shing, who will be studying with the instructor’s four-year-old son from next month. The curriculum includes Nathan’s daily schedule in all areas such as moral education, physical education, music and social skills.
She said the bureau, even if it was happy with the curriculum, would not issue official approval for Nathan to be educated at home, because this would be against its policy. She said if the family passed tomorrow’s interview, officials would not force Nathan to go to school but would visit the family regularly to check the quality of his education and to keep urging the boy’s parents to let him return to a mainstream school.