There is a growing literature including popular media articles reporting many issues about the current education provision for the ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. The Equal Opportunity Commission has also formally noticed Education Bureau of its concerns about the education of ethnic minority students. It especially recognized an issue with reference to the disproportionately low participation rates of ethnic minority children in upper secondary and post-secondary education compared to the majority ethnic Chinese children. This paper uses two important frameworks to focus on the extent of ‘out of school’ ethnic minority children in Hong Kong i.e. ‘Five Dimensions of Exclusion’ by UNICEF and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and ‘Seven Zones of Exclusion’ by Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE). An analysis of 2006 census data confirms that a good number of ethnic minority children are not within the school; this includes the pre-primary, lower secondary, upper secondary and post-secondary age-group children. This paper concludes with suggestions concerning a research and policy agenda in the area of ethnic minority education in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2013 Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK).

School participation rates in Hong Kong are acknowledged to be high but not always for the city’s ethnic minority students. Case study was used to portray the ‘out of school’ phenomenon for ethnic minority students at a secondary school in Hong Kong through the experiences of one such ethnic minority student. Morshed, a Pakistani student, participated with the researchers in an unstructured in-depth interview. In addition, interviews were also conducted with the principal, two teachers, and one support staff from the school. The study showed the complex interaction of school contexts and personal life issues that influenced Morshed’s dropping out of school. Implications are drawn for providing better school support that can facilitate more positive schooling experiences for Hong Kong’s ethnic minority students.
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