Many mainland Chinese migrant children do not know much Cantonese or how to read traditional Chinese. Photo: ShutterstockThe use of Cantonese and English in secondary schools is the “biggest [academic] problem” for children of mainland Chinese talent who have settled in Hong Kong, education authorities have said.
The Education Bureau has said it was willing to look into building hostels at some semi-private schools, after a lawmaker asked whether the government could offer boarding facilities for children of talent who might have to frequently travel back to mainland China.
Undersecretary for Education Jeff Sze Chun-fai said on Monday that authorities had been trying to find out from secondary schools how children were adapting after settling in Hong Kong with parents who had arrived through various talent schemes.
“We know their biggest problem is the language issue,” he told a meeting of a Legislative Council subcommittee discussing education support for children of new migrant talent.
Students from the mainland do not know Cantonese well and learned simplified Chinese in the past, he explained. They now have to use traditional Chinese in Hong Kong.
“We learned from school principals that more students [from the mainland] face challenges in learning English.”
He said authorities provided schools with a grant to offer support services, such as supplementary lessons and orientation activities.
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Lawmaker Erik Yim Kong, a vice-chairman of the subcommittee, suggested the bureau consider allowing children to repeat a year in school to allow them to adapt to the new environment.
“They could use Mandarin in the first three months for learning, and Cantonese and English for three months afterwards. It may take a year. Then let them learn the formal curriculum in the second year,” he said.
Yim also said migrant talent might have to travel back to the mainland after they obtain visas. Schools with boarding facilities in Hong Kong might suit their needs.
Sze said students from the mainland could choose to attend a full-time half-year initiation programme run by some schools before joining mainstream schools. This could enhance their learning experience in a real classroom environment.
They could also attend an on-campus 60-hour induction programme run by non-governmental organisations aiming to help newly arrived children cope with adjustment and learning problems.
Sze also revealed that the bureau had held discussions with some semi-private schools – institutions that had joined the direct subsidy scheme – about building hostels on their campuses.
“If schools are interested in adding hostel facilities on the campus, we are willing to explore it with them,” he said.
As of February, 56,121 children under 18 had been granted permission to stay in Hong Kong as dependants under various talent admission schemes in 2023-24, according to official data.
But at least three lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction that no further details were available on figures for the dependents, saying it would be hard to plan without knowing which grades the children were in.
“It is not ideal, as it is difficult for us to deploy resources and assess whether the resources are sufficient,” lawmaker Carmen Kan Wai-mun said.
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Sze said that although obtaining figures from schools was not difficult, offering the care that students needed was more important.
He noted that the bureau had accepted applications for allocation of Primary One admission and secondary school places for dependents of talent scheme applicants while the Immigration Department was still processing their cases.
Several lawmakers also expressed concern about arrangements for children if the city’s immigration authorities did not grant their parents a renewal visa.
Sze told them that students would have to leave their schools if their parents’ visas were not renewed, and teachers had been asked to remind the talent to be prepared for their children’s education before applying for visa renewals.