400 HK parents sign up for place at Harrow

International school to take up to 750 local students

More than 400 Hong Kong parents have put their children's names down for the city's first international boarding school - months before building work is due to begin.


Plans for the campus of Harrow International School Hong Kong, which will be built on the site of a former military barracks in Tuen Mun, were unveiled yesterday at the British Consulate in Admiralty.


The school is being set up under a franchise agreement with Harrow School in Britain by Harrow International Management Services, which won a government tender for the site last year and is close to sealing a land grant.


Executive headmaster Mark Hensman, who is leading the project, said the school aimed to recruit 50 per cent of its 1,500 students from the territory - the maximum number permitted by the government - but had set no minimum quota for local students.


"An international school should reflect the culture of the local environment, so it is very important that we have a large number of Hong Kong students," he said. "Our ideal is 50:50.


"We have had nearly 400 registrations of interest to date - all from Hong Kong.


"We will be marketing the school from Indonesia to Korea and Japan and from the Philippines right across to possibly the Indian subcontinent."


Hensman said children aged seven and above would be selected using tests of English, maths and non-verbal reasoning and interviews from August next year. Younger children would be observed in play sessions for English ability and social skills.


The school would provide scholarships and bursaries for around 10 per cent of students. Scholarships would go to students with special or all-round ability in academic study, music or sport.


Plans for the 3.7-hectare campus feature a nine-storey building set around a football pitch, three tennis courts and one multi-purpose sports pitch. The HK$700 million building, which is being bankrolled by Hong Kong tycoon Daniel Chiu, will provide 33.3 square metres of space per student in a campus that is less than one-fortieth the size of its mother school in London.


The first phase of construction, due to be completed in 2012, also includes an indoor swimming pool, an underground sports centre and a housing block for 50 teachers. A performing arts centre and extra boarding house are due to be added later.


Students will be allocated to eight "houses" - following the traditional pastoral system of British independent schools - with each house occupying one floor. There will be 44 students to five staff per house, with separate wings for boys and girls.


Hensman said day students would also be allocated to houses for the school's extensive programme of extra-curricular activities and homework, on which students were required to spend two hours per day after lessons. The school's 100 teachers, who would have to live on campus, would be recruited mainly from the UK, he said.


Permanent secretary for education Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, who met with the Harrow team yesterday, said the school would "definitely" help to address the educational needs of expatriate families and attract overseas students to Hong Kong.


"We will continue to monitor the provision of international school places and take the necessary measures to meet the demand of the community," he said.


SCMP. Apr. 14, 2010.

Nearly half of high schools to teach in English

16 schools using Chinese to switch completely from September The number of secondary schools teaching in English in Hong Kong will almost double in September when the changes to language instruction policy take effect, according to school profiles released by the government yesterday. Taking advantage of the latest changes in language policy, 16 schools which are now teaching in Chinese will switch to teaching entirely in English. Another 80 schools will adopt a mixed approach - using Chinese for humanities subjects but using English for science subjects. Seven schools will do the opposite by switching at least some classes from English to Chinese. This means 199 schools, or nearly half of the 402 secondary schools in Hong Kong, will be teaching fully or mainly in English. This is the second turnaround of the medium of instruction adopted in local schools. The government adopted the mother-tongue policy in 1998 when all but selected secondary schools were ordered to switch their medium of instruction to Chinese. At present, 110 schools teach entirely in English. In 2006, the authorities announced that schools could teach a class in English if 85 per cent of students in that class were in the top 40 per cent of their age group academically. Schools whose students learn mainly in Chinese could use English for up to a quarter of lesson time to promote "extended learning activities". The policy will start from Form One students in the next academic year. Many schools said they made the switch because of an appeal from parents. Ho Kit-to, principal of Shun Tak Fraternal Association Tam Pak Yu College in Tuen Mun, one of the 80 schools using the mixed approach, said: "Many schools, including us, made the switch because of the market or parents' demand." Dr Anson Yang, principal of King Ling College in Tseung Kwan O which will adopt blanket English-language teaching next year, said all parents, teachers and students were excited about the change. "I believe that students will just learn better," he said. Another school which will soon join the ranks of English-medium schools is Yuen Long Lutheran Secondary School, which has been teaching in Chinese for 50 years. Principal Belinda Chan Yuen-chau said: "Our students are quite ready for this and the school is well prepared." Yim Chin-ming, principal of TWGH Lo Kon Ting Memorial College in Yuen Long, said: "We have been waiting to switch back to English-medium since 1998. "Until the handover, we taught in English and the school never really wanted to switch to Chinese. Almost everyone in the school is delighted with the change." One father, Mr Yip, whose Primary Six son will be affected by the new policy when he starts secondary school next year, said he was confused by the new system. "We now have more choices. Most parents in this town want their children to learn English well and I am just one of those." Michael Tien Puk-sun, former chairman of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research who is critical of the new policy, said: "These schools switching to English-medium teaching are the first nail in the coffin for mother-tonuge education. In the end, Chinese-medium teaching in junior secondary schools is going to be wiped out altogther." Seven English-medium schools will no longer be allowed to teach entirely in English. SCMP. Dec 15, 2009. As a Form 6 student, do you think it is a good idea for more secondary schools to switch to English as a medium of instruction?

Parents need help over costs of textbooks, says watchdog

The Consumer Council yesterday called on schools and the Education Bureau to consider helping parents with the rising costs of primary and secondary school textbooks.

One solution, the watchdog said, was for schools to purchase textbooks and pass them along from one group of students to the next.

'This is environmentally friendly, it can also ensure students will get the right edition,' said Ambrose Ho, chairman of the group's publicity and community relations committee. 'Students will learn to value property which would be commonly shared, [they will] learn to recycle and learn to treasure precious resources.'

The council has already put its suggestion to the bureau, which is 'considering various options', Mr Ho said.

A bureau spokesman said it was 'in the process of setting up a working group to look into the rise of textbook prices and use of e-textbooks'.

The council's annual survey on textbook spending found costs have increased over the past year. 'Based on data from 53 primary and 45 secondary schools, the council has found the average textbook expenditure was HK$2,153 for primary and HK$1,947 for secondary,' Mr Ho said.

'This year's expenditures have shown an increase of 5.9 per cent for the primary sector and 6 per cent for the secondary sector compared with last year's expenditures of the same sampled schools.'

Mr Ho said some schools invited bookstores to hold sales on their premises and parents were offered discounts if they bought a complete set of textbooks. But there were drawbacks - other bookstores may decide not to stock the books and parents may not easily find places to buy used textbooks, he added.

There was, however, 'a welcome trend', Mr Ho said. 'More schools now are organising their own ... second-hand sales and encourage second-hand donations.'

The bureau spokesman said schools could decide whether to invite bookstores into their facilities but 'before making a decision, schools should solicit support from parent-teacher associations, and should take into account the pros and cons'.

'Schools should also keep parents and students well informed of details of such an arrangement, and let them know they have every right not to purchase textbooks in schools,' the spokesman said.

'With regard to the suggestion of schools purchasing textbooks, the bureau notices some schools are working this way and hopes more schools would consider following suit.'

Discussion question: Do you think the prices of textbooks are not reasonable? Are the methods suggested in this article helpful in easing parents' financial burden?