Education in Hong Kong

Education in Hong Kong has a similar system to that of the United Kingdom, in particular the English education system of Hong Kong was modernised by the British in 1861. The system is often described as extremely competitive by global standards.

Small village Chinese schools were observed by the British missionaries when they arrived circa 1843. Anthony Sweeting believes those small village schools existed in Chek Chu, Shek Pai Wan, Heung Kong Tsai and Wong Nai Chong on Hong Kong Island, although proof is no longer available.

One of the earliest schools with reliable records was Li Ying College established in 1075 in present day New Territories. By 1860 Hong Kong had 20 village schools. Chinese who were wealthy did not educate their children in Hong Kong, instead they sent them back to the mainland for traditional Chinese education. The changes came with the arrival of the British in 1841.

At first Hong Kong's education came from Protestant and Catholic missionaries who provided social services. Italian missionaries began to provide boy-only education to British and Chinese youth in 1843. By 1861 Frederick Stewart would become "The Founder of Hong Kong Education" for integrating a modern western-style education model into the Colonial Hong Kong school system. One of the much contested debate was whether schools should offer Vernacular education, teaching in Chinese at all. Education was considered a luxury for the elite and the rich. The first school to open the floodgate of western medical practice to the Far East was the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. The London Missionary Society and Sir James Cantlie started the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese in 1887 (although, the ‘for Chinese’ was later dropped from the name). In addition, the London Missionary Society founded Ying Wa Girls' School in 1900. Belilios Public School 庇理羅士女子中學 was a girls’ secondary school founded in 1890 – the first government school in Hong Kong that provided bilingual education in English and Chinese. The push for Chinese education in a British system did not begin until the rise of social awareness of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and New Life Movement in 1934. Educating the poor did not become a priority until they accounted for the majority of the population.

Finance issues were addressed in the 1970s. A small group of protesters of South Asian origin marched through central Hong Kong demanding more schooling in the English language on 3 June 2007.