Educational Provision for
Ethnic Minority in Hong Kong
香港少數族裔學童的教育服務

Background

The proposed Racial Discrimination Bill (Home Affairs Bureau, 2004)
has attracted a good deal of public attention with the main criticism often
being that it does not go far enough (EOC Concern Group, 2005; April
Fifth Action, 2005; Unison Hong Kong, 2005).The Hong Kong SAR
government sees the proposed legislation as having its main impact in the
private sector. Yet Education has been identified as a 'protected area of
activity' (para.44) and the nature of that protection is quite clear: "It should
be made unlawful for the responsible body for an educational establishment
(a school, institute or university) to discriminate on the ground of race in
respect of admissions or the treatment of students" (para. 51). Even without
the RDB, parents of ethnic minority students have not been reluctant to
come forward and point out what they currently see as discriminatory behaviour
in terms of 'fair treatment' (Home Affairs Bureau, 2004) and the Education
and Manpower Bureau has taken remedial action to address the problem.
In a new context where such complaints will have the force of law, EMB
can expect both the rate and severity of complaints to increase.

Even where parents might not be equipped to bring complaints under the
RDB, they will have ample support from community groups. Community
interest in the education of ethnic minority students seems to have
been stimulated largely by non-government agencies (Ku, Chan, & Sandhu,
2005; Loper, 2004; Yang Memorial Methodist Social Service, 2000, 2002).
Newspapers have also carried stories largely about the disadvantages that
ethnic minority students experience either in schools or the community
(Lau, 2005; "Hong Kong Youth", 2005; "Over 6% South Asian Students",
2005). Public perceptions of educational provision for ethnic community
students are overwhelmingly negative. The proposed RDB will
provide an important avenue of recourse for future complaints.

Project Objective Background Plan Methodolgy

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References Research Method Research Project Statistics Workshop