Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong:

Policy, Resources and Quality

Gail Yuen

The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Change of Governance

From British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997

The Basic Law (Government of the People’s Republic of China, 1990) Hong Kong as a special administrative region (SAR) One country, two systems A high degree of autonomy Formulate own policies on the development and

improvement of education

Hope? Illusion?

Context

British colonial legacy

Laissez-faire politics Economic emphasis Executive orientation Minimal attention on education

Compulsory education Teacher education Educational borrowing

Context

Hong Kong SAR government

More commitment to education More ‘faithful’ adoption of managerialism

Economic challenges Business orientation of policy elites and officials

Stronger executive orientation Tung administration (1997-2003) Tsang administration (2003-present)

Context

Yuen (2005)

A government official said,

“After 1997 . . . . the 3Es, which stand for economy, effectiveness, and efficiency, have been advocated to promote accountability.”

“Accountability has priority over [professional] competence.”

Policy as Discourse

Ball (1994)

Discourses are about what can be said, and thought, but also about who can speak, when, where and with what authority.

We are the subjectivities, the voices, the knowledge, the power relations that a discourse constructs and allows.

Reality?

Early Childhood Education System

Birth to Age 3

Social Welfare Dept.Child care centers

Crèches (birth to age 2)

Nurseries (ages 2-3)Mostly full-day session

Ages 3 to 6

Education BureauKindergartens & nurseriesMostly half-day session

(am/pm)

Early Childhood Education System

Institution type

All private (none being publicly funded) Non-profit-making vs. profit-making Local vs. international

Early Childhood Education System

Student population

Predominantly Chinese Ethnic minorities – India, Pakistan, Nepal, etc. Increasing number

Children living in poverty Immigrant children from the Mainland China

Early Childhood Education System

ECE workforce

Predominantly female and local Chinese Mostly secondary school graduates Preservice professional qualification (starting

from 2008) Teacher – sub-degree Principal – degree

Minority teachers – English, Putonghua, ethnic

ECE Resource Allocation

Stages of development

Rent & Rates Reimbursement Scheme (1970s) Fee Remission Scheme (1980s) Kindergarten & Child Care Center Subsidy

Scheme (1990s) Voucher Scheme (recent)

Voices from the Field

Yuen (2005)

The issue of financial resources has been most contested.

“limited resources as the root problem of the many tensions and conflicts encountered by the field”

Intensification of the issue due to increasing social and policy pressures

Voices from the Field

Social pressures

Low birth rate Increasing poverty Changing population composition Family problems Cultural emphasis on education and achievement

Private operation: Survival always comes first.

Voices from the Field

Yuen (2005)

A holistic rather than piece-meal approach to improving the provision of the field Direct subsidy to operation Teacher education, qualification, and salary Legislation and regulation Unification of the education and care services

Patterns of Officials’ Responses

Yuen (in process)

It was against the existing policies to provide any kind of direct subsidy to kindergartens.

Financial support might not be truly economical or efficient.

The control that came with direct subsidy was against the market operation of the field.

It would be hard to justify using public dollars to subsidize profit-making kindergartens.

The budget involved in subsidizing teacher salary was too substantial.

Patterns of Officials’ Responses

Yuen (2005)

A government official said,

“It would be best if a shirt has a collar and sleeves. When resources are limited, the priority is, of course, given to the universities.”

Post-secondary educationPrimary education Secondary education (12-year compulsory education)

Silencing the Voices

Given something else in return (Yuen, 2005)

R1: Adjusting tuition fee cap + Fee Remission Scheme

R2: Introducing Kindergarten and Child Care Center Subsidy Scheme

R3: Adjusting tuition fee cap + Fee Remission Scheme + Kindergarten and Child Care Center Subsidy Scheme (keep changing the calculation method)

R4: Subsiding teacher education rather than the field

Policy Emphasis on Teacher Education

Colonial

Secondary school graduates with 2 passes

Teacher – 40% with short-term training by 1995 and initial training by 1997

HK$163 millions for teacher education

No preservice requirement

SAR

Secondary school graduates with 5 passes

Teacher – 100% with initial training by 2004

Principal – 100% with sub-degree by 2005

More resource allocationPreservice requirement

Given Something Else in Return

Demand

PreserviceInitial trainingSub-degree for teacher

Degree for teacher

Given

InserviceShort-term trainingInitial training for teacher, sub-degree principalSub-degree for teacher,Degree for principal

Teacher Education and Qualification

Policy as Discourse

Moss & Petrie (2002)

…we are spoken by policies, we take up the positions constructed for us within policies.

…may have the effect of redistributing ‘voice’, so that it does not matter what some people say or think, and only certain voices can be heard as meaningful or authoritative.

Notion of Quality

Yuen (in process)

“It is the government’s policy to provide quality kindergarten education in the private sector. To achieve the aim, the government has provided different financial assistance through rent reimbursement, the Kindergarten Subsidy Scheme, the Fee Remission Scheme, etc. . . . Parents have more choices and play a more active role in quality control when they share the cost . . . . The global trend nowadays is to rely less and less on public funds.”

The Paradox

Yuen (in process)

In contrast to the declining quality of publicly funded primary and secondary education, the good private practice of early childhood education showcases the value of privatization and justifies the neo-liberal argument for a small or limited government.

HKSAR Education Reform

Education Commission (2000)

Early childhood education is

the foundation of lifelong learning.

HKSAR Education Reform

Building a new culture for quality early childhood education (Education Commission, 2000)

Enhancing professional competence Enhancing the quality assurance mechanism Reforming the monitoring mechanism Enhancing the interface between early childhood and

primary education Mode of subsidy

ECE Resource Allocation

Operator

Rent & Rates Reimbursement

Kindergarten & Child Care Subsidy Scheme

Parent

Fee Remission Scheme

Voucher Scheme2

3

1

Operator (Provider)

Parent(Consumer)

Rent & rates reimbursementKCC Subsidy Scheme Fee Remission Scheme

Complete Market Approach

Voucher System

Designed with students’ best interests in mind (Education Bureau, 2006)

Help reduce parents’ financial burden Support professional upgrading Improve educational quality

Free choice – stimulating competition Increasing institutional transparency Meeting performance standards – self-evaluation and

quality assurance inspection [moving towards accreditation] Funding implications

Patterns of Officials’ Responses

Yuen (in process)

It was against the existing policies to provide any kind of direct subsidy to kindergartens.

Financial support might not be truly economical or efficient.

The control that came with direct subsidy was against the market operation of the field.

It would be hard to justify using public dollars to subsidize profit-making kindergartens.

The budget involved in subsidizing teacher salary was too substantial.

Given Something Else in Return

Yuen (in process)

One teacher educator commented,

“The field only gets a share of the pie when there is money.”

HKSAR Education Reform

Resources currently devoted to education

Early childhood & primary (22.9%)

Secondary (33.3%) Post-secondary (34.7%) Others (9.1%)

According priority to basic education

Early childhood and primary education are a key stage where the foundation for lifelong is laid. When considering the allocation for any additional resources, priority should be given to early childhood and primary education. (Education Commission, 2000)

Global Trends in ECE

Grieshaber (2006) Increased spending by governments on the early

years Quality assurance mechanism Imposition of standards, accreditation or assessment

– make ECE accountable for funding and outcomes Usually focusing on structural aspects, e.g., staff-

child ratios, group sizes, facilities and resources, staff qualifications, professional development

Discourse of Quality

Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence (1999) About the how rather than the why

Bloch, Holmlund, Moqvist, & Popkewitze (2003)

A natural good of the private sphere over the public

Policy Debates on Voucher

Yuen (2007)

The unfamiliarity of the subject to the local community, including those in the field

Mostly on the operational aspects of the policy without problematising the underlying assumptions made at the deeper level

A general acceptance of the proposed scheme as a legitimate solution to issues concerning early childhood education in spite of the top-down nature of the policy and the lack of public consultation in the planning stage

Voucher in Hong Kong

Lee & Wong (2002)

There is no conclusive evidence to show that

the introduction of an education voucher system will improve the quality of education, although it will increase competition among participating schools.

Policy as Discourse

Bakhtin (1981)

Authoritative discourse demands unquestioned loyalty from those who are involved, as it assumes that utterances and their meanings cannot be changed in the process of communication.

Moss & Petrie (2002)

Power produces regimes of truth Make assumptions and values invisible

Turn subjective perspectives and understandings into apparently objective truths

Pervasive influence Governance without overt coercion of people The ability to order and normalize, in particular through

classification and categorization

Effects of power/knowledge relationships (Bloch, Holmlund, Moqvist, & Popkewitz, 2003)

Form cultural reasoning systems that govern and regulate

Produce inclusions, while maintaining exclusions of defining difference

Early childhood education is normalized as:

A market place A production of competitive workforce

(lifelong learning) A private responsibility (a natural good) A ‘decorative’ stage of education (“important

but not essential”) A exemplary model of ‘progressive’ policy in

a modern society

Exclusion/Inclusion

Reproduce the pecking order of education by further marginalizing:

ECE from the education system Lifelong learning foundation but not basic

education For private rather public good

‘care’ from ‘education’ in ECE

Exclusion/Inclusion

Exclusion

Child care centers (ages 0-3)

Nurseries (ages 3-6) – full-day programs

Teachers serving children aged 0-3 and working in full-day programs

Children aged 0-3 attending child care centers and full-day programs

Inclusion

Kindergarten and nurseries (ages 3-6) – half-day programs

Teachers serving children aged 3-6 and working in half-day programs

Children aged 3-6 attending kindergartens/nurseries and half-day programs

Policy continues to perpetuate and widen

the disparities between early childhood,

primary, and secondary education

Opper (1993)

In brief, kindergarten education continues, as in the past, to be the Cinderella of the education system. As her two elder sisters, Primary and Secondary, prepare themselves for the ball organized by the Education Commission, she remains in the kitchen, neglected and despised, gleaning the meager droppings that fall from the Education Department’s table. When, on when, will her fairy godmother arrive to wave a magic wand and change all this?

Policy allows the oppressive forces embedded

in the political, cultural, and institutional contexts of Hong Kong to

sustain.

Children of Tomorrow

Where are the children of today?

The ‘Us’ vs. ‘The Other’

New governance after 1997 (Yuen, in process)

‘one of us’ (colonized: Chinese) and not one of them’ (colonizer: British)

‘Us’ includes Those who share the same Chinese heritage and

hold the same belief in educating the younger generation

Those who are no longer ‘colonized’ In effect, the ‘us’ is also the colonizer.

Heck (2004)

How we think about our problems determines

both what we see and what we fail to see.