1 in 10 Hong Kong ethnic minority pupils get government-funded university spots

Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)

Just one in 10 Hong Kong pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds who studied the city curriculum secured a government-funded public university place in the past five years. This number is well below the 25 per cent recorded for students from the majority population.

Ethnic minority figures and teachers said the government statistics underlined that low proficiency in Chinese was the main reason for low admission rates for ethnic minority students over the years.

They appealed for non-Chinese speaking children to be placed in mainstream kindergartens and for effective supervision of the funding earmarked to help them.

Education Bureau figures obtained by the SCMP showed that between 106 and 149 non-Chinese speaking children sitting the city’s university entrance exams obtained a government-funded university place each year over the past five years.

There were between 1,094 and 1,245 such children who sat the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams every year over the same period.

The figures mean that one in 10 non-Chinese speaking pupils who took the DSE exams in Hong Kong secured a subsidised place over the past five years.

Quiz time

1. What is the primary reason why fewer ethnic minority students are granted government-funded university spots?

2. What needs to be done to help students who don’t speak Chinese?

3. How many non-Chinese speaking students secured a government-funded university place each year in the last five years?

Answers

1. Low proficiency in the Chinese language.

2. They should be placed in mainstream kindergartens, and the funding earmarked to help them should be effectively supervised.

3. Between 106 and 149.