Essay: Free Kindergarten Education Policies In Hong Kong.

Critical analyse of Hong Kong Early Childhood Education and Care Policy Text.

Importance of Kindergarten Education in Hong Kong

Kindergarten education is one of the most important part for the development of aesthetics, emotional, social and physical aspects of a child along with the development of the cognitive and the language skills in the early part of the life. This early education plays a major role in the helps in the learning in future and the balanced development of the child. Considering the advanced and the affluent city of Hong Kong, it thus ensures that the children receive the quality education irrespective of the financial background. The government has currently set the priorities in to extending the 12 to 15-year education program so that it can cover the Kindergarten education and also to improve the quality of the education imparted (Sweeting 2017).

The Kindergarten in the Hong Kong country operates beside the private operators work in accordance regulation and rules that are set by the Education Bureau (EDB). The education sector has been found to be characterized by high levels of flexibility in the vibrancy, diversity, operation and the quick response for the purpose of service needs. There are different types of views and opinions with respect to the future education policies of kindergarten education. However, it is important to note that there is a consensus with respect to the fact that formulation of the new policy must not disrupt the merits and the strengths that the existing education system already have. The committee for the Free Kindergarten Education was set up in the year April (2013) and under this committee there are 5 sub-committees that work on the examination of the issues and the views for making the proposals and how to implement the same for providing quality education in a sustainable and practicable manner (Leung 2012).

The importance of the policies is based on the vision of putting the child first and emphasises on the right start for all children. the main mission of the policy is to provide a sustainable policy that will be unique for the purpose of imparting the kindergarten education in Hong Kong and also catering to the diverse needs of the children and along with it providing the quality education to the children and the process will be equitable, resulting in the lifelong development of a person. The policies also emphasise on the procedure of learning that will be fostering an inquisitive mind within the children and will help in increasing the interest in the exploration and learning. The policies also help in the balanced development of the confidence, healthy self-concept of the children and guide the children to get ready for the school (Spodek and Saracho 2014).

Government Priority in Extending Education Programs

I chose this topic over the other because Hong Kong has one of the competitive education systems where the education system is highly emphasized on examination. The kindergartens and the child care are all together registered in the education bureau and provide services for the children that are within the age group of 3 to 6 years. The kindergarten education has one sole motive and that is to provide all round development of the child for their future.

The evaluation of Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy in Hongkong places sufficient importance on free kindergarten education. There has been significant work towards the establishment of free education policies for improvement of the Hongkong based primary school education structure. The early childhood education had been relatively neglected by Hongkong government till 2000.The early childhood education promotes child centeredness and holistic development as core values. The goal is to provide optimum learning environment for the children at the primary school level. The Early Childhood Education policies aim to bring about a change in the pre-primary education structure by changing the perceptions and perspectives of the parents. The early childhood education is offered under the Pre-Primary education voucher scheme (PEVS). However, due to a number of societal pressures and differences inequalities are met with in the pre-primary education structure. 

In order to understand the status of free kindergarten education in Hongkong, there is a need to look at the current infrastructural setup. Between the years (2013)-(2014), there were total 969 kindergartens and kindergarten cum childcare centres. The kindergartens offers 3 hours program whereas the kindergarten cum care centre (KCCC) offers whole day programs. Children of 3-4 years old enrolled in nursery class belong to the section K1 children of 4-5 years old enrolled in lower kindergarten are designated as K2 whereas children of 5-6 years of age studying in upper kindergarten are designated as K3. Hongkong has one of the most competitive education systems in the world (gov.hk 2018).

The over lapping and private systems reflects three unique characteristics of pre-primary education services in Hongkong. The pre-primary stage of education and care of children are seen to be intertwined, as the children are spending long hours within the primary care homes. However, the views of the government are different where they treat education and care as separate entities. As mentioned by Leeet al.(2015), the lack of early education planning along with proper pre-primary  education policies further restrict the success of the programs. Till a very long time, the colonial government of Honkong operated under the laissez free model where they thought that pre-primary education was the sole responsibility of the family, which further led to cultural and language differences in education.  As mentioned by Ng et al.(2017), the children were treated at home by their mothers using their specific mother tongue. This further possessed difficulty for the children to adjust to lectures offered at higher education level in language other than their mother tongues, which further created a social disparity in education. The free pre-primary education is a huge step forward in this direction as parents in Hong Kong have taken the prime responsibility for sponsoring the pre-primary education of their children for many years. However, as mentioned by Leeet al.(2015),  lower  economy reported by the ethnic minority communities has been seen to be a major hindrance in achieving optimum levels of pre-primary education for  all. Reports have suggested that more than 90% of the parents have supported full subsidisation of kindergarten education.

Education Sector Regulation and Rules in Hong Kong

Some of the schemes developed by the Hongkong government to support free pre-primary education in children are – Free Quality Kindergarten Education Scheme (FQKES) and the Pre-primary education voucher scheme (PPEVS).In order to critic the themes with the help of theories, it is necessary to understand the basic concepts highlighted by the themes.

The FQKES is supposed to be implemented in the school year of (2017)-(2018). As per reports, 745 kindergarten schools have reportedly given consent in joining the new scheme. Though, 20% of the have day KGs would still have to charge fees from the parents in order to meet the rental charges. As reported by Yelland et al. (2018), the government needs o increase their subsidized to such schools. It has been reported that under the implementation of the new scheme the schools will charge the parents of children studying at higher levels fees higher than the normal level. This will be done in order to make up for the additional subsidies which will be provided to support the education of ethnic and lower economy groups at the pre-primary level. The schools joining under the FQKES scheme will be provided with a start up grant of $300,000 (edb.gov.hk 2018).  However, as mentioned by Wong and Rao (2015), the pre-primarily education centres would sufficiently exhaust the funds at the leading to a situation of crisis where they will have to charge the parents normal than the higher amount.

Similarly, the pre-primary education voucher scheme was introduced in the year 2007-2008 and provides direct fee subsidy to parents of children attending nursery, lower and upper classes in local and non-profit making organizations. However, for the provision of full subsidies the kindergartens need to qualify under certain sections. Some of these are that they should be non-profit making kindergartens, should charge fees not higher than the limit set by the education bureau (EDB) (info.gov.hk 2018). The amount of fee subsidies was set up at $22,510 per student per annum.

The free kindergarten education policies have been further criticised with the help of a number of theories. The two such theories, which had been selected over for evaluation are are-Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and Foucault’s theory. Bronfenbrenner’s theory states that the inherent quality of a child along with the environment supports growth and development. The theory focuses upon moving a child from intimate home environment to larger school systems, which can facilitate the socio-cultural learning in the child. Hence, a comprehensive school environment can facilitate exchange of knowledge within the children. Therefore, the free quality education programs have been built with this objective of meeting with the schooling and educational needs of the children. As per Bronfenbrenner’s theory, the growth and learning environment of a child could be divided into  a  number of components which are –microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. The learning of the child is mainly facilitated by the interaction of the mirco and the microenvironment, which may include the home and the school of the children (Yuen2016). It is often based upon a balance created between these two levels, which promote free learning in children. Therefore, the theory given by bronfenbrenner supports both the types of educational scheme such as FQKES and PPEVS.

Committee for Free Kindergarten Education and Sub-committees

On the other hand, the Foucault’s work states that the control of the state over the pre-primary education patterns is much dictated and governed by the mechanisms inherent to particular institutions.Therefore, combining the two theories it could be said that the socio-cultural factors play a profound role in guiding the education patterns and success (Siriboeand Harfitt2017). 

The socio-cultural factors could be best described with the help of the bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The theory states that exosystem, macro system and chornosystem play a profound role in facilitating the learning and development in the child. For example, the effect of social distresses such as unemployment of the parents along with job dissatisfaction can also be expressed in the form of misplaced anger in the child. 

As supported by Burke (2017), a number of issues are faced at this point in the implementation of the policies such as the children between 0-8 years are more close to their parents and could not easily trust the educators outside their home environment, providing them educative services. Additionally, insufficient support and participation from the parents can also hinder the progress to the services.

The main influences on the ECEC policy are through the emphasis on the education system which emphasises on the examination. The examination identifies the talented individuals so that they can join the managerial and the administrative class. Elitism is culturally and socially encouraged and this helps in the upward mobility. The universal attendance in the pre-school programmes- the parents of the children that receive the early childhood education and care for the programmes and in the early childhood care. The other reason is that the government want to impart the deprived children with the necessary education. Forms and regulation of the pre-school services- the Hong Kong pre- primary services that included the kindergartens targeted the 3 to 6 year old and it also involves the childcare centres (Wong and Rao 2015). According to the political globalization, there is an emergence of higher number of International NGOs that work for children worldwide. It is important to point out the concern of the children as their wellbeing and right is now a global issue.

The organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conducts the analysis and then develops the data that are based on the early childhood education and care for the purpose of providing the timely, valid and international information in order to help and support the countries so that they can redesign their childhood systems and services. The OECD help the countries to frame the policies by providing advice and comparative data based on the ECEC. The data are made country specific and the priorities of the individual countries are kept at the maximum. The OECD also develops data based on the international perspective and provides an insight of the different ECEC systems and how they are organized across the world (Oecd.org 2018).

Mission and Policies of Kindergarten Education in Hong Kong

United Nations convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC) is the main foundation of the Unicef’s work and it includes the most complete statements on children rights. The convention has 54 articles that cover all the aspects of the child rights with respect to the cultural, social, economic, political and civil rights and this must be entitled to the entire children world over. These provisions are kept so that the governments and the adults must work together so that the children can enjoy their life. This is the most ratified human rights treaty and is even accepted by the non-state entities (Unicef UK 2018).

The drivers at this time are to prepare the children so that they can have a future within existing challenges in the competitive society and globalised world. There are other challenges for the child due to the diverse culture and competitive society. The other drivers include the lifelong fostering of the children so that they can have an inquisitive mind, increase the interest in the exploration and learning, balanced development, a health self-concept, also to increase the confidence and ability of the children and guide the children to adapt in to the ever changing world (Edb.gov.hk 2018).  

Explore enablers- the persistent urging by the advocacy groups, parents and educators for the purpose of the early childhood development and this can be viewed as a continued effort for the government to change the attitude of laissez-faire. The western countries greatly influence the standards and the testing, and this helps in enhancing the achievements of the students. The other driving factors like the teacher qualification guidelines, curriculum guidelines, and the monitoring guidelines. The lack of funding for the proper social development has resulted in to being the biggest inhibitor in the education sector (Wong and Rao 2015). 

Theory- Michel Foucault proposed a theory and it emphasises on the grounds of the scholarships, policies, and educational debates. The concept of the discourse is multidimensional and it includes the several types of definitions. The power and discourse are considered as the social interrelated constructs and can be effectively used for the purpose of achieving greater understanding of the classroom management. The classroom management involves the bureaucratic, Taylorist and Fordist domination. The practices involve the particular concepts, perceptions and theories on human kind. Within an instructionist classroom, the power of the teacher can be considered as a tool for the social reproduction of the shapes and the students play a part in the classroom (Pitsoe and Letseka 2013).

Infrastructural Setup of Kindergarten Education in Hong Kong

Urie Bronfenbrenner is an American psychologist who had proposed an Ecological Systems Theory and it explains how the environment and the inherent qualities of a child interact and leads to the influence the development and grow. Through this theory, Bronfenbrenner tried to portray the growth of a child with respect to the multiple environments and also focuses on the development of the child. The model consists of the different systems like the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. The microsystem is the immediate environment, mesosystem denotes the connections, exosystems are the indirect environment, macrosystem consists of the social and the cultural values, chronosystem involves the changes over time (Ashiabi and O’Neal 2015).

The pre-primary education voucher (PEVS) can be described as a funding arrangement that focuses and works within the existing policy of the kindergarten policy. Prior to the implementation of the PEVS, the government of Hong Kong characterised the education system with vitality, diversity and adaptability. Parents were given a free choice of the kindergartens and also the fee schemes that are specially operated for the children that belong from the needy families. After the implementation of this scheme, there have been a large number of enrolments in the kindergarten schools and a competition is seen among the kindergartens.

The policy rationale- increasing the financial investment in the pre-primary education through the scheme of PEVS in HongKong. The government also wishes to enhance the quality and responsiveness of the sector. The main vision is to provide quality education for all the children belonging from the relevant age group and to provide quality pre- primary education and care (Pitsoe and Letseka 2013).

Theory- the child rights theory in terms of education explicitly states that children have the inherent right of gaining access to the education. Every child has the right to have the basic education so that they can atleast have knowledge to lead a proper life. At the same time, it is also important to note that the children of the deprived classes also possess the same rights (Quennerstedt and Quennerstedt 2014).

Significant improvement has been noticed since it is introduced and it promotes the government subsidy for the kindergarten education. The policy enhanced the qualifications of the teachers, principals and as well as increased the accountability of the same. The gaps however are the insufficient funding of the scheme. The children have been found to excel in the education and there are visible differences with respect to the additional enrolments (Edb.gov.hk 2018).  

Socio-cultural Factors and Pre-primary Education Policies in Hong Kong

The other policy which could be highlighted over here is the Free Quality KG education scheme.

Aim: To provide free, affordable education to children at the pre-primary level

Rationale: The scheme had been implemented by the government in order to provide quality education in KG at little cost. This had been implemented in order to reduce the fees claimed by the whole day programs as they have been found to be more successful in meeting the learning objectives of the pre-primary children than half day program. As reported by Ngan (2015), under the scheme KGS participating in the scheme should not charge school fees for half day services. The half day services include the care component as an important integral part. Hence, fee waivers for the half day services also helps in providing quality care services to the children. As reported by Li and Wang (2017), applications for collection of school fees should be supported with strong justifications. For example, it results in situations where the rental charges of the pre-primary care centres cannot be covered by the government subsidies alone. In such cases, it often becomes pressurising for the parents of the children studying in higher classes who has to pay higher amount of fees. As mentioned by Wong and Rao (2015), such unequal distribution often dampens the education system by driving the resources at a single point instead of distributing them equally and effectively between the education channels.

The policy also aims at improving the professional competency of the teachers and the support carers at pre-primary educational and care services.  A number of frameworks are developed which supports engaging in curriculum development and professional development. Both are aimed at enhancing the standards of the care and pre-primary educational services. The professional standards are aimed at improving the care structure of the pre-primary educational services. However, there is little scope in the policy for integrating the educational services with the support and care services aimed towards the pre-primary children (Chan2017).

The policy had been further supported though the principles of child rights, which states that the children born in Hongkong will be automatically handed over a nationality card irrespective of the nationality of their parents. Under this, they will be provided with the basic rights to education and live there. This removes all differences among learning where a common framework will be followed to provide educational services under common language and cultural environment to children of the pre-primary age group. 

Some of the government policies developed with regard to free quality KG education scheme have profound impact upon the children enrolled in pre-primary classes along with their families and educators. For example, the free quality education was aimed at providing better quality teachers. However, the lack of effectively disseminated government subsidies often results in the schools asking for higher fees from the parents (edb.gov.hk 2018).In many situations the schools due to less availability of funds do cost cutting in the fees paid to the teachers. This could further de-motivate the teachers as well as affect the quality of the pre-primary education services (Leeet al.2015).

Research and evidences have suggested that parents find the most difficult to impart primary education to their children. It could be attributed to poor economic conditions and unavailability of proper pre-primary educational services. As mentioned by Chen and Liang (2017), some of the pre-primary educational services are available at extremely higher costs. The ethnic and minority community groups with lower income cannot afford quality education for their children. Therefore, free educational pre-primary educational services of HongKong can remove the barriers and help in the provision of equal opportunities to al social groups. 

Additional level of importance needs to be levied upon the quality of the education programs delivered in the pre-primary settings. The quality of the early childhood education program could be accessed using a number of measurement approaches such as the top-down perspective, which identifies selected characteristics of the educational settings, as well as equipments used for delivery of the educational programs. The bottom-up perspective on the other hand determines the manner in which the program is experienced by the children. The inside-outside approach analyses the manner in which the program is experienced by the family members of the children. As mentioned by Siriboeand Harfitt (2017), some of the governing factors are the kind of interaction established between the adult and the children, the quality and quantity of education materials used as well as qualifications and stability of the educational staff. Therefore, an effective balance needs to be maintained between all the different perspectives in order to provide the child with a friendly and supportive learning environment.

On a whole, the free pre-primary education policies as mentioned in ECEC policies Of HongKong can help in the development of optimum learning environment for the children as well as their parents. However as argued by Chan (2017), there are loopholes as little has been mentioned in the policy integrating the aspect of care with the educational services. Additionally, the ineffective dissemination of funds from the government results in a situation where the parents often end up paying higher. Hence, for the policies to become functional at all levels sufficient support and monitoring from the government and local agencies is required. 

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