📋 Tender Overview
Following is a question by the Hon Mrs Regina Ip and a written reply by the Secretary for Education Dr Choi Yuklin in the Legislative Council today May 28
Question
It is learnt that the lack of Chinese language proficiency of nonChinese speakers has always been the biggest obstacle for them in pursuing further studies seeking employment and integrating into the community Although the Government has been providing nonChinese speaking NCS students with allencompassing learning support through diverse strategies to help them master the Chinese language and integrate into the community some members of the education sector have reflected that some primary schools still have reservations about admitting NCS students In this connection will the Government inform this Council
1 of the respective numbers of a primary schools admitting NCS students and b NCS primary school students together with a breakdown by school type ie i public sector primary school ii Direct Subsidy Scheme primary school and iii private primary school in each of the past five years
2 of the measures currently put in place by the Government to support the preprimary education of NCS students so as to assist them in learning Chinese and enhancing their language proficiency thereby enabling them to articulate more smoothly to the primary school curriculum
3 of the measures currently put in place by the Government to encourage primary schools to admit NCS students eg reserving some school places for NCS students so as to enable their early integration into the community and
4 whether the Government has reviewed the effectiveness of the existing measures to support NCS students if so of the details if not the reasons for that and whether it will conduct such a review in the future
Reply
President
The Government is committed to encouraging and supporting the integration of nonChinese speaking NCS students into the community including facilitating their early adaptation to the local education system and mastery of the Chinese language The Education Bureau EDB has been providing NCS students with allencompassing learning support from preprimary to secondary levels through diverse strategies to help them master the Chinese language and integrate into the community
Our reply to the question raised by the Hon Mrs Regina Ip is as follows
1 and 3 All eligible children including NCS students enjoy equal opportunities in admission to public sector schools To encourage parents of NCS students to arrange for their children to study in schools which provide an immersive Chinese language environment the EDB abolished the socalled designated schools support system back in the 201314 school year With the implementation of various enhanced support measures the number of schools admitting NCS students has gradually increased and the school choices for parents of NCS students have also been widened At present most of the publiclyfunded schools in Hong Kong have admitted NCS students which account for about 70 per cent of the kindergartens KGs joining the Kindergarten Education Scheme SchemeKGs and over 70 per cent of the primary and secondary schools The number of public sector Direct Subsidy Scheme DSS and private sector primary schools admitting NCS students and the respective number of NCS students from the 201920 to 202324 school years are tabulated below
School year
Public sector
primary schools
DSS
primary schools
Private sector primary schools
Number of schools
Number of NCS students
Number of schools
Number of NCS students
Number of schools
Number of NCS students
201920
317
9 044
14
1 007
46
2 271
202021
328
9 271
15
991
44
2 127
202122
341
9 230
14
970
45
1 981
202223
352
9 334
15
914
44
1 997
202324
356
9 554
16
932
49
2 019
Notes
1 Figures for the 202021 school year refer to the position as at midOctober and others refer to the position as at midSeptember of the respective school years
2 Figures include students whose ethnicity is Chinese but are categorised as NCS students based on the spoken language at home
3 Figures exclude international schools private independent schools and special schools
2 The EDB encourages parents of NCS students to arrange for their children to study in local KGs for early adaptation to the local education system as well as early exposure to and learning of Chinese Starting from the 201920 school year the EDB has further enhanced the relevant measures for NCS students by providing a fivetier grant for SchemeKGs according to the number of NCS students admitted A KG admitting one NCS student can also receive the grant and the grant rate for the highest tier is a double of the previous level All the KGs receiving the additional grant have each assigned a teacher to coordinate the support measures for NCS students The KGs concerned mainly deploy the resources for appointing additional teaching staff procuring professional services eg translation or interpretation services organising cultural integration activities etc to enhance the support for NCS students in diversified modes
4 The Government encourages and supports the learning of Chinese of NCS students including ethnic minorities students and the creation of an inclusive learning environment in schools through diverse strategies including providing additional funding to schools optimising the curriculum enriching the teaching resources enhancing teacher training and professional support and facilitating homeschool cooperation
Regarding the provision of the additional funding all public sector and DSS schools offering the local curriculum and admitting NCS students can be provided with an additional subsidy according to the number of NCS students admitted The amount of the additional funding currently ranges from about 016 million to about 16 million per year for each school Schools usually use the additional funding to employ additional teaching staff members to teach i
