With another year of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education finishing, let’s look at the status of ethnic minorities when it comes to the city’s education system.
I, too, belong to the group of “ethnic minorities” in Hong Kong. The term, at its core, should include the minorities of the city – in short, those who are not ethnically Chinese. However, in reality, the term is coined to South Asians and doesn’t include Caucasians and East Asians and ironically even Southeast Asians (such as Filipinos or Thais); thus, has developed a negative connotation to it. Caucasians are referred to as “Expats” (short for expatriate) which carries a more positive meaning, often being seen as professionals and authoritative figures. But this probably stems from a bigger issue of the city’s colonial history. Ethnic minorities make up 6.4% of the city’s population of 7 million and some being here even before the British Handover to China. They are on the other hand, seen as poor, band 3 students (the lowest rating for a school) and often victims to racial profiling too.
But, we the “Lost Generation” still suffer from educational segregation despite being Hong Kong permanent residents in a so-called international financial city, sometimes even dubbed as “Asia’s World City.” Because of educational segregation, it leads to a wider gap between the mainstream Hong Kong Chinese population and ourselves, that would eventually lead to bigger problems such as prejudice and discrimination in areas of employment and education.
Minority students are mostly studying in schools where 90% of the students come from ethnic minority backgrounds. Now, to some that might not be a problem. But it is. These “designated schools” are not in the same playing field as the local or international schools. They often have poor facilities, not enough language support in learning Chinese (Cantonese) and not enough qualified teachers that can handle students from different backgrounds. Some teachers see ethnic minorities’ student lack of fluency in Cantonese as a motivational problem and often just give up in understanding these difficulties instead of addressing it at its core.
Others do not understand the value of the students’ culture such as the need to wear head scarves, not able to eat meat (that is not halal), among others. Other than Chinese and Western holidays, the festivals of these different ethnic groups are also not recognized. In the policy address, ethnic minorities are also placed in the disadvantaged category. While local Chinese students exist in these schools, they are often separated from ethnic students. There are areas in the school where it is for Chinese students or for ethnic students and they are not taught together in one classroom. Perhaps, they’re only even in one room during the morning assembly. This just furthers the separation between the two and it’s such a missed opportunity for both.
In these schools, students are not exposed to the dominant Hong Kong culture and have little-to-nothing amount of interaction with their local Chinese counterparts that makes them lag behind in terms of Cantonese-language skills and learning abilities, most not even attending kindergarten or dropping out during senior secondary. For one, Cantonese is not the first language of these students, it might be their third or fourth. Teaching them as if its their first and forcing them to embed in their heads that if they want to stay in Hong Kong, they should learn it or leave is just adding salt to the wound.
One might ask, “then why don’t they just go to international schools?” International schools are mostly composed of expat students or those Chinese families that can afford it. And this is where educational segregation stems its core problem. If these students are learning in such a poor environment who cannot compete with their Chinese counterparts in seats or places for the only 20,000 university seats (and about 70,000-80,000 high school students take the public examination to get into university every year), then they will most likely have lower academic qualifications with poor Cantonese and land in low-paying jobs which will then results in low-income. Compared to typical Chinese families of 3-4 people, ethnic minority families tend to be bigger. Some students have to work while studying to help support their families or worst, drop out. That is why it snowballs. They simply can’t afford to go to international schools.
Add that in Hong Kong’s academic-oriented society where students view the public exams for entry into university as a warzone, a so-called survival of the fittest. If you don’t get a spot, you’re a failure. They’re just going to end up in jobs where their ethnicity are concentrated at: Filipinos are domestic helpers or working in the food and beverage industry, Indians are going to sell curry and Nepalis are going to be construction workers. Senior secondary students (those in form 6) spend the last year of their high school preparing for this test. They are non-stop war machines reading to be thrown into the arena with their so-called opponents (the Chinese students). After-school tutorial classes there, more practice tests here added with the constant pressure for teachers comparing them to the local Chinese students “who study 8 hours a day!” This is probably where the stereotype of Asians being hardworking comes from. It stems from the idea that an A+ or a 100 is equals to success. But for many ethnic minorities, they just want to survive, find a place and belong in this city that they’ve been born to, have been raised, have lived and would probably also have their families.
Others might think: But some people have it worst. It doesn’t mean that you should downgrade the struggles of others. Ethnic minorities have played a part in making Hong Kong what it is today including founding Shanghai Bank, China Light and Power Limited and the city’s first ferry cross-harbor service. We have been here for generations and there are so many of us whose talents are lost because we have been segregated in receiving the education and opportunity that we deserve. That is why firsts such as first ethnic minority taxi driver, first ethnic minority policeman/women and first ethnic minority social worker still make the headlines because ethnic minorities have been deprived from so much opportunities that when they do succeed, it becomes a big milestone within the community.
Will the situation change? With more ethnic minorities speaking out on this issue, we surely hope that the future leaders of Hong Kong would see ethnic minorities as part of their city, as they should be.
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