Hong Kong early childhood education runs in the private sector. In recent years, the government has implemented a number of policies to improve the quality of early childhood education. The Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme is one of important early childhood education policies in Hong Kong. The Scheme aims to improve the quality of early childhood education, by providing financial assistance to parents and upgrading teachers' qualifications. However, this policy raised widespread awareness and debate amongst the stakeholders. This paper will discuss how the scheme affects different stakeholders and explores its way forward. The essay first provides a brief background of the scheme and Hong Kong's early childhood setting. The latter part of the essay discusses how the scheme affects the various stakeholders, including: policy makers, early childhood education sectors, early childhood educators and parents. Finally, suggestions to improve the scheme are made.
[Copyright © The Hong Kong Institute of Education].

Since the late 1990s, early childhood education in Hong Kong has progressively lounged a series of reforms to raise the quality of early year education. Along with the emphasis on adopting the 'child-centred' concept of children's learning, the Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum issued in 2006 recommend an integrated approach in the curriculum design. The integrated "holistic" approach calls for a shift of paradigm from the formal didactic teaching of academic knowledge to an informal development of the children through quality teacher-children interactions. Hitherto, small class teaching environment is created via the increase in teacher-student ratio at the start of the 2003-2004 academic year. A review of literature on small class teaching suggested that teacher-children ratio, classroom settings and the relevant pedagogic applications are important ingredients for the philosophical enhancement of the small class spirit. This paper will report some preliminary data collected in a pilot study conducted in two classrooms in a Hong Kong Kindergarten. The findings are reported as case studies which suggest that the spirit of small class teaching is not restricted in an informal teaching environment but in some formal teaching settings in the school as well. Discussion and implications on this understanding will be made.