Education in Hong Kong: Encyclopedia II - Education in Hong Kong - Primary Education

Education in Hong Kong - Primary Education

Primary education in Hong Kong covers a wide curriculum. Core subjects include Chinese, English, and Mathematics. Other basic subjects include social studies, sciences (physics, chemistry and biology), and health education (or 'General Studies' which is a mixture of the aforementioned), music, physical education, and art and craft.

The teaching medium in most of the local schools is Chinese with English as a second language. 'International' schools make their teaching medium English, with some of them providing education in an alternative language as a second language. For example, the German Swiss International School makes German the second language, and the French International School, French.

A central allocation system (the Secondary School Places Allocation system) was introduced when the Academic Aptitude Test was cancelled in 2000. This is used to determine which students, who successfully completed primary school, are eligible to which secondary school. This is determined by the students' grades in three examinations (the second term in Primary Five, the first and second terms of Primary Six). The grades are then adjusted by the school's overall performance in the Academic Aptitude Test during 1997 to 1999 by a complex formula.

This determines what 'band' a student is in. As schools are now divided into three bands according to their academic standards (previously five bands), the top few children of each class are most likely to be in Band 1, and vice versa. There has been some debate whether this 'band system' is fair or discriminatory. The courts have already gone someway to help reduce the discriminatory effect by changing the five-band system to a three-band one.

Note, however, that this band system does not apply to international schools. In September 2002, 432,500 children were enrolled in 699 government and aided primary schools.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Primary Education", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki