This paper addresses issues of cultural minority students in Hong Kong. The study involved multiple case studies of nine schools where interviews with principals and teachers were carried out. Findings demonstrate that Hong Kong, as an international city, is conservatively behind in dealing with cultural differences. Many mainstream schools are reluctant to accept children who do not belong to the Cantonese-speaking group. For example, new arrival children from Mainland China with additive cultural capital are generally welcomed by the schools, whereas those with negative cultural capital are often rejected, retained or demoted by schools. Further, children of South Asian decent can only attend one of the seven government-funded schools that cater for ethnic minority pupils. The study found schools in Hong Kong greatly behind in multicultural knowledge, skills, and experience in working with children from diverse cultural backgrounds. The paper attempts to draw implications for future policy.

In response to reform of the senior secondary school curriculum, parents, professionals and schools voiced out the significance of the learning equity and opportunities of school graduates in special schools. Different parties urged the government to clarify the academic structure, curriculum arrangement and resources for these SEN students in senior academic structure reform. This was a territory-wide study on parental views and preferences of the senior secondary curriculum among special schools for students with mental handicap, physical handicap and visual impairment in Hong Kong. In the study, it was found that at the initial stage of policy planning, the further education opportunities of children with intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities after the 9-year basic education were not fully considered. The opportunities remained unchanged and were of limited variety. Other than the extension program in the special schools, there was no innovative policy and practice in offering further education for these students. Parents were dissatisfied the limited choice of the further education and career placement for their children after the graduation at the age of 18. They expressed their strong view on the equal opportunity in the reform of senior secondary academic structure. With regard to the scenario of development, the study further reported the views and expectations and preferences of parents. Parents expected a clear division of secondary education into junior and senior, two stages, as opposed to a six-year education without such distinction. The curriculum, arrangements and assessment of senior secondary education should be further enriched and strengthened. Education and vocational training for schools leavers were expected. The results were significant and the empirical data provided teachers, school administrators, curriculum planners, teacher educators and the authority with the insights for further actions. The teacher education in empowering

Encouraging parent involvement is one of the prime focuses of promoting home-school cooperation in current education reform in Hong Kong. This paper contains research data collected through qualitative methods aiming at capturing the thoughts and perceptions of twelve parents and twelve teachers in three primary schools in Hong Kong so as to explore whether both parties are ready for parent-school cooperation. Findings indicated that both parents and teachers demonstrated cognitive and affective awareness of parent involvement outside school while teachers were strongly unwilling to see parents being involved in decision making. To promote parent-school collaboration, it is important to consider teacher-parent relationships and the influence of Chinese culture on parent involvement. The paper also serves to provide scholars with academic insights for further investigation and policy makers with practical knowledge in developing appropriate strategies to promote home-school cooperation.
[Copyright © 2002 Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization.]

This article discusses how school management can facilitate effective learning in schools for young children. First, it briefly reviews the concepts of curriculum, pedagogy and effective learning. Then, the current state of early childhood education in Hong Kong is examined. With reference to schools for young children in Hong Kong, the article then explores how school management can improve and maintain effective learning through curriculum and pedagogy.
[Copyright © 2001 Alberta Teachers' Association.]

The twenty-first century is a period of educational reform, of which school improvement has been one of the strategies for successful change stressed by various entities. Under the foremost notion of schools’ quality assurance and improvement, different places in the world have marked the significance of performance assessment on early childhood education. In Hong Kong, the previous Education and Manpower Bureau launched a “Voucher Scheme” for early childhood education in 2007. The Scheme requires participating kindergartens to undertake a self- and external- evaluation in order to strengthen their quality assurance mechanism, and to make the education more accountable to parents and society. Making use of a local school as an illustration, this paper presents and discusses the case under the “School-based Quality Improvement Scheme” organized by the Centre for Early Childhood Research and Development of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The main support depicted in the case will adopt the “Performance Indicators Framework of the Hong Kong Early Childhood Education” as a theoretical and practice reference on discussions. The plan, process and outcomes of the Improvement Scheme on the case under studied will also be briefly introduced.