Abstract
Almost all 3- to 6-year-olds attend preschool programmes in Hong Kong; however, early childhood education (ECE) had been relatively neglected by the Hong Kong government until 2000 when the reform of school education system was initiated. Since then, notions of ‘child-centredness’ and holistic development have been promulgated as the core values of ECE. Against this backdrop, this paper critically examines the Hong Kong ECE context, its historical development, the major obstacles to reform from both parents’ and providers’ perspectives, and the recent key policy developments in ECE. It provides a useful reference for international audiences, particularly those in Confucian-heritage cultures, in designing and implementing educational reform and change in ECE.
Highlights
The Hong Kong context In the 2013 to 2014 academic year, there were a total of 969 kindergartens and kindergartens-cum-childcare centres (KG-cum-CCCs)a in Hong Kong (Education Bureau 2014b)
The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution and the continuous development of early childhood education (ECE) in the policy context of Hong Kong
The future of early childhood education in Hong Kong the introduction of the primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) has provided an ample opportunity for the government to carry out its long hoped-for ECE reform, a few problems remain unresolved
Summary
The Hong Kong context In the 2013 to 2014 academic year, there were a total of 969 kindergartens and kindergartens-cum-childcare centres (KG-cum-CCCs)a in Hong Kong (Education Bureau 2014b). The pre-primary education voucher scheme Pressure from parents’ expectations, insufficient financial input from the government, inadequate qualifications of teachers, their difficulties in reconciling Western theories with inherent cultural values about early learning and development, and most importantly, the strong market forces that resulted from the long-time laissez-faire attitude of the government, impeded the speed and strength of the ECE reform. In the face of parental desire for academically oriented curricula that cannot be altered, the ‘hybrid’ PEVS (between market and social engineering) does seem like a practical move to drive (or force) kindergartens to endorse child-centred pedagogy and curriculum and provide quality ECE in accordance to the official PIs. Limiting the eligibility to only NPMKs on one hand would provide incentives for parents to choose these schools, which were more likely to follow the government’s recommended ‘Do's and Don'ts’ for kindergartens. The government investment in ECE had risen from 2.7% in 2006/2007 (right before the implementation of the PEVS) to 4.8% of the total recurrent education expenditure in 2011/2012
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