- Language
Unlike local schools, international schools are free to choose their medium of instruction. Usually, English is the common language used for tuition in the multi-national environment of international schools. However, in order to meet the demand of parents and society, the three international schools chosen also include Chinese language studies in which students are required to learn Cantonese or Putonghua. They aim at raising students’ awareness and appreciation of Chinese artistic, literary and tradition along with those of the rest of the world. As mentioned before, English is the only common language in Shatin College because of multi-nationality of its students. In addition, these schools also offer subject in order languages such as French, German, Spanish or Japanese.
As biliterate and trilingual abilities are absolutely important for tertiary education and future employment, most parents expect their children to attend high language proficiencies in both Chinese and English, international schools seem to be a better choice for them. Moreover, the unique multi-national environment of international schools also provides an image that they are better places for learning languages because students can learn language in a natural setting, as well as classroom setting. That’s why many parents want their children to study in international schools.
- Teachers and teaching methods
In the web page Chinese International School, there is not much information about the teaching staff and teaching methods used. It just claims that all the teachers are well qualified, experienced and highly motivated.
The web page of Shatin College contains some teachers’ profile. I can see that, most of them are westerners and some of them are graduated from famous university such as Imperial College in UK. Similar to Chinese International School, it does not contain any information about its teaching methods.
On the other hand, the homepage of Yew Chung International Schools contains relatively much information about its teaching staffs and different teaching approaches in its home page. In short, all the teachers, except those who teach Chinese, are western native English speaker coming from all over the world. Similar to other schools, they expect all the teachers have enthusiasm for teaching and dedication and commitment to the goals of the school. Apart from qualification of teaching staff, different teaching approaches are also included in the web page. For example, the school adopts integrated learning approach which focus on connection of students’ learning in one subject to another one. Other teaching methods include “Learning by doing” which emphasis on practical task, instead of following textbooks or teacher developed example, “Activity centered learning” which allow student participate in independent and small group learning activity.
From the above information, it seems that many teachers in international school are native English speakers and their qualifications are very good. The teaching methods used seem to be much vivid and interesting than those of local school. All these factors make parent find that international school are very attractive.
- Facilities
It is a common belief that international schools are equipped with extremely high quality facilities. Let’s us now look at how these schools introduce their facilities in their homepage.
In the homepage of Chinese International School, there are several pages about the facilities in the campus. Apart from music room, arts room and laboratories which are commonly found in secondary school, there are 68 classrooms with informational technology equipments, four computer rooms, three libraries with over 50000 volumes, three gymnasiums and a outdoor swimming pool.
The homepage also contains various photos with detailed description of different facilities. From the photos, we can see that the facilities are so high-tech that they are comparable with those in universities. All these description and photo are extremely attractive to parents as students should certainly enjoy their life in such comfortable environment.
In the above paragraphs, I tried to summarize the packaging used by international schools to attract parents and students. To conclude, we can see that the international schools attempt to give an image that they are different from, or more precisely, superior than the local schools. In the following paragraphs, I am going to explain why these packaging are so attractive in Hong Kong context
- Why are the packagings of international schools so attractive in Hong Kong context?
In the previous paragraphs, I summarized the packaging and images of international schools in Hong Kong by exploring web pages of three international schools. Now, I am going to discuss why these packaging and images are so attractive in Hong Kong context. Firstly, I will look at the historical background. Then, I will consider the present education system in Hong Kong.
- Historical Background
Since 1898, Hong Kong became British colony. Before 1972, English is the only official language in Hong Kong. Almost all the early government officials were westerners. From 1972 onwards, although both Chinese and English became official languages in Hong Kong, the superior status of English did not change. Many parents want their children to achieve high proficiency in written and spoken English because it is a common belief that people whose English standard up to the level of native speaker are more probable to get a better career.
As mentioned above, most teaching staffs in international schools are native English speaker and English is the common language used in that multinational environment, parents believe that their children can acquire English more effectively in international schools.
Moreover, international schools were first established to cater for the needs of expatriate children who moved to Hong Kong with their parents. Usually, their parents are government officials, professionals or executive in internationally recognized companies who have high social status. Therefore, sending children to study in international schools became a symbol of social status and wealth. Moreover, the school fees of these schools are so high that not so many parents can afford. For example, the annual school fee for year 7 (equivalent to F.1) in Chinese International School is $110,700. However, parents do not have to pay any school fee if they send their children to local school because there is nine-year compulsory education in Hong Kong. All these make international schools seem to be superior to local schools and are so attractive among parents.
- Present education system and quality of local schools
To a certain extent, the popularity of international schools reflects parents’ discontent on existing education system and local schools. Then, what are the differences between international schools and local schools? In the following paragraphs, I will compare international schools with local schools in certain aspects: class size, facilities, curriculum, medium of instruction and teaching approaches. I will also look at the effects of recent educational policies on parents’ choice of schools.
Firstly, the class size of international school is much smaller than that of local schools. Take the example of Shatin College and my mother school, which is a typical government subsidized school: the maximum number of students in F.1-3 is 23 only, but there are more than 40 students in a class in my mother school. The situation is almost is similar in upper form. There are 30 students in F.6-7 of my mother school and the total number of students in year 12-13 is around 16 only. As all of us know, smaller class enable students to settle more quickly in a classroom and enhance opportunities for individual attention, international schools are certainly better than local schools with regard to class size.
The second issue to discuss is facility. Undoubtedly, international schools provide much better facilities to their students than local students. As I mentioned, some of the facilities provided are comparable with universities such as drama studio, full size sports court. Although some new schools also very well equipped, the facilities are not as luxurious as those of international schools. Moreover, as international schools are not as densely populated as local students, students must have more opportunities to use the facilities provided. In comparison with relatively crowded environment of local schools, international schools are undeniably very attractive to parents.
The third difference between international schools and local schools is the curriculum they offered. In local schools, the curriculum offered is HKCEE and HKALE. While in international schools, the curriculum offered differs from one school to another. Generally speaking, the curriculums offered in international schools are more flexible. In another words, students have wider choice of subjects. Apart from two typical language subject (i.e. Chinese Language and English Language), students who choose to follow International Baccalaureate (IB) can choose French, German and Spanish. Similar to local schools, it offers science subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology, commerce subjects like Business Studies and Economics and humanity subjects like History and Geography. Some subjects such as Government and Politics, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Psychology, Theater Arts and Theory of Knowledge which are rarely found in local schools are offered in international schools. A wide range of subjects offered allows students to study according to their own interests. This situation is totally different from that of local schools because most students can only choose “Science Stream”, “Arts Stream” or “Commerce Stream” when they are promoting to F.4. We can see that, the curriculum offered in international schools are more flexible than local schools, and therefore, more attractive to parents.
From the statistics obtained from Education Department, the number of local students studying in international schools increased significantly since 1998. One of the probable reasons is due to strong promotion of mother-tongue teaching by Education Department since 1997. Previously, most of the local secondary schools used English as medium of instruction. However, the number of secondary schools adopting mother-tongue teaching (i.e. “Chinese” schools) rose from 70 to about 300 from September 1998. Although the government promised that additional support measures such as additional native-speaking English teacher and recurrent grants for equipment and library books would be given to schools using Chinese as medium of instruction, most parents do not support this change. Most of them think that the English standard of their children will drop because they will have fewer chances to use and learn English in “Chinese” schools. Therefore, the unique environment of international school, e.g. native English speaking teachers, multinational classmates, makes international schools tremendously attractive to parents who want their children to acquire high English proficiency.
Teaching approaches in local schools have always been criticized of being teaching-centered, textbook-based and examination-driven. Many parents are not satisfied with teaching methods of local schools. Some complain that their little children have to face too much pressure from examination. Some criticize that students are not able to apply the knowledge learnt, but simply learn it by heart. The approaches adopted by international school contrast sharply with that of local schools. In short, international schools claim that their approaches are student-centered, skilled-based and capacity building. Besides having lectures and tutorials inside classrooms as local schools, international schools emphasis learning outside classrooms. For example, “The World Classroom” of Yew Chung International School involves student going on an extended educational visit to major destination in the world. This provides opportunity for students to experience and learn about another culture. Such activity is seldom found in local schools. Parents definitely find these diverse learning activities very appealing.
From the comparison between international and local schools, we can see that international schools are superior to local schools in certain aspects. This explains why the packaging and images used by these international schools are so attractive to Hong Kong parents. Besides, recent education policy also makes parents lose confidence on local education system and local school and so, so of them may send their children to international schools. I am going to summarize the effects of recent education policy on attractiveness of international schools in the following paragraphs.
The first one is on the medium of instruction. As I mentioned above, some parents are worried that their children cannot learn English effectively in schools using mother-tongue instruction. They may think that international schools provide a better environment to learn English.
Secondly, change of banding in secondary schools from 5 bands to 3 bands implies that the level of students in a classroom became more diverse. Some of the parents may worry that their children cannot learn effective because of this diversity. Some complain that the new secondary school places allocation system is not fair. Those discontented parents may send their children to international schools for secondary education.
The third one is about the implementation of “through-train" mode. In a “through-train” school, P6 students can enter the linked secondary school directly without participating in the Secondary School Places Allocation mechanism. Although Education Department claims that because the 2 schools have the same philosophy and aspiration for education and they can work closely together to provide students with coherent, all-round and balanced learning experiences. Some parents are worried the competition to enter famous school, or English school, are stronger and start earlier in kindergarten. International schools provide an alternative for parents who feel disappointed on the present education system or fail to enter famous school.
In fact, the above three are just examples of recent education policies. What I would like to say is that, numerous policy but without clear target let many parents down. That’s why so many parents value highly their children’s entry into international schools, which are not affected by these policies, in recent years.
- Interview with a previous international school student and his parents
The purpose of this interview is to find out their points of view on the attractiveness of international schools and the reasons for studying there. The interviewee is 23 years old. He studied in an international school in Hong Kong since 13 years old for 6 years before attending university in Canada.
According to his parent, the main reason for sending their child to international school is that they believe it can provide a better environment for learning, especially in English. Furthermore, they think that learning in international school is more relaxed, not as stressful as in local school.
In his 6 years school like in international schools, the interviewee think that the greatest reward is fluency in spoken English. He said that there was too few opportunity in Hong Kong to listen and speak natural English. However, as some of his classmates were native speaker, he had no choice but use English for communication. Gradually, he achieved native-like fluency in spoken English. He also pointed out that the facilities of international schools are excellent and are opened for all students. He could use computer room whenever he wanted. He was also happy about the subjects available. He did not have to choose science stream or arts stream. He could choose the subjects he was interested, e.g. Calculus and Economics in year 13. Such combination is not allowed in local school. He was also appreciated to the active learning atmosphere. He said everyone was eager to participate in activities and ask questions when they did not understand. Despite of so many good points of international schools, the interviewee also complained that the life there was not as relaxed as many people though. They had regular tests and examinations too. His parents also complained that the teachers there were not strict enough. Students were not punished if they did not hand in their homework. Therefore, self-control is very important.
Lastly, I asked both the parents and the interviewee if it was worthwhile to spend a huge amount of money by sending children to international schools. Both of them agreed that the school fee was too high (about $20000 per semester), but it was worthwhile. Nevertheless, they also admitted that the existence of international schools might create “labeling” effects because only those who can afford the school fee can study there. This may not be a healthy phenomenon in the society.
Conclusion
In this essay, I have explored the packaging and images of some international schools, why these packaging and images are so attractive in Hong Kong context, comparison between international schools and local schools and interviewed with an alumnus of an international school. It is undeniable that international schools provide wider range of subjects for students to choose, better facilities, smaller class size, more diverse activities than local schools. All these are the lures of international schools in Hong Kong. To a certain extent, international schools provide an alternative for students and parents.
In addition, local schools can learn from international schools because they are able to provide an environment that enables children to develop the ability to question, to discover and to create. These abilities are exactly what are needed in this information age to maintain our competitive edge.
