One of the dilemmas in educational policy is how to reconcile individual rights with social demands and ease of administration. In 1978 the Hong Kong Department of Education introduced a competitive secondary school allocation procedure (SSPA) based on Internal Assessment (IA) in primary schools. It was designed to match pupils to appropriate secondary schools. Every year the girls performed better than the boys. At first the Education Department solved this "problem" by taking marks away from the girls and subsequently by employing separate gender ranking, gender banding, and gender quotas for co-educational schools. In 1995 a Sex Discrimination Ordinance was passed and an Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) set up. Complaints from girls soon came to the EOC and the department's policy was judged by judicial review. Documents presented in court will be used to illustrate the arguments about gender and cognition.
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Since the '50s, the once highly unified culture is now fragmented, leading to a variety of cultural derivatives, such as mainland Chinese culture, Hong Kong Chinese culture, Singaporean Chinese culture and Malaysian Chinese culture. Although still called Chinese culture, they have their distinctive forms. Communities like the mainland Chinese, the Hong Kong people, the Chinese Singaporeans and the Chinese Malaysians differ considerably from one another in such cultural aspects as behavioural approach, thinking mode, mental attitude and vocabulary. This paper examines some features of major Chinese-background discourses in Asia with a particular focus on educational aspects and issues.
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Chinese society has, traditionally, perceived sex as a taboo subject, and as such, is seldom discussed openly, and rarely taught in schools. Under these circumstances, most Hong Kong people never learn about sex education during their formal school years. With an increase in the number of sex-related crimes in Hong Kong, education is becoming increasingly important. Since learning in early childhood influences a person's future values and behaviour, sex education should be implemented early, preferably in pre-schools (Roffman, 2002; Woody, 2002).
To implement effective sex education in pre-schools, parents' views are important. This pilot study aims to investigate Hong Kong parents' perceptions towards implementing sex education programmes in pre-schools. One kindergarten and one childcare centre were randomly selected for this study. A total of 12 parents were interviewed. The findings indicated that most parents lacked the confidence to discuss sex-related issues with their children mainly because they had insufficient knowledge and skills, and also felt embarrassed. However, to overcome these inadequacies and feelings they were willing to better equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and skills for the benefit of their children.
[Copyright of Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) at http://www.aare.edu.au]