Status of Homeschooling
in Hong Kong
Is
it illegal?
Contrary
to common belief, homeschooling in Hong Kong is NOT
illegal.
This
has been confirmed to us by the Permanent Secretary of the Education
Bureau Mrs. Cherry Tse during a meeting on 11 April 2014 with a few
homeschool practitioners (myself: Cam Cheung, Karen Chow, her
husband Jacky, and her two daughters: Abby, 7 and Janique, 2).
We
also know for the first time, as of 11 April, there are 18
homeschooling cases which have applied with the EDB, whose officers
pay regular home visits to to ensure the children are actually
receiving an education and the families do not abuse their right.
Legal
Basis:
We
feel the following pieces of legislation give the space necessary for
homeschooling in Hong Kong:
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 26
Parents
have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be
given to their children.
- Hong Kong Basic Law Article 137
Students
shall enjoy freedom of choice of educational institutions and freedom
to pursue their education outside the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region.
- Education Ordinance
Section
3: INTERPRETATION Version
Date: 01/07/2007
"school"
(學校)
means an institution, organization or establishment which provides
for 20 or more persons during any one day or 8 or more persons at any
one time, any nursery, kindergarten, primary, secondary or post
secondary education or any other educational course by any means*,
including correspondence delivered by hand or through the postal
services; (Amended 38 of 1983 s. 2; 42 of 1993 s. 2)
(*This
enables home or other outside-of-school learning)
- Section 74: Power of Permanent Secretary to order attendance at primary school or secondary school
Where
it appears to the Permanent Secretary that a child is not attending
primary school or secondary school
without
any
reasonable excuse*,
the Permanent Secretary may, after making such inquiries as he
considers necessary, serve upon a parent of the child an attendance
order in the specified form requiring him to cause the child to
attend regularly as a pupil the primary school or secondary school
named in the attendance order.
(3) This
section shall- (c) not apply to a child-
(iii) who
is attending regularly, or is an inmate of, an institution (other
than a school)** which is regarded by the Permanent Secretary as
suitable for the child.
(*
'reasonable
excuse' allows
broad interpretation)
(**
enabling home or other outside-of-school learning)
Why
do people think it's illegal then?
We
are not too sure. But one important reason is probably based on
widespread negative news reports in 2000, when a father Leung Chi
Kwong, stopped his daughter from attending school because he did not
trust the HK education system. He decided to homeschool. EDB
officials visited their home everyday for an extended period to ask
him to send his child to school. He was given an attendance order
after a couple of years, but he chose to move to mainland China and
came back to HK after some time. His daughter eventually was enrolled
in a Hong Kong primary school, and graduated from secondary school in
2012.
There
were subsequently two other cases in the news which probably also
caused the belief that 'homeschooling is illegal'. In 2009 a couple
was sentenced to community service when they stopped sending their
son to school, because of a fee they didn't agree with, and in 2012,
a woman stopped sending her daughter to school because she didn't get
a place at the secondary school she wanted, but the woman was later
found to have psychological issues.
The
negative news reports might have been the main reason why people
believe homeschooling is illegal here. However, during the time when
these cases were reported, there could have been quite a few
'acknowledged' cases practising homeschooling under the monitoring of
the EDB 'Non-attendance case team'.
Of
course, the EDB schooling policy throughout the years since the
inception of compulsory education (a term which has given way to
'universal free education' in recent years) may also form the basis
of an understanding that it is compulsory to go to school. This
misunderstanding is widespread, even among teachers, school
administrators and government officials.
The
government's position:
While
homeschooling is not illegal, the government made it clear to us
during the meeting that they will not encourage homeschooling
presently, as they consider going to school is the best option for
children. Also, from their point of view, they have to guard against
possible abuse.
We
asked for the meeting, which happened as previously mentioned on
April 11th,
to enhance mutual understanding. We sought to promote understanding
rather than asking for resources. (Please see the the proposal
that we handed to the government after the meeting.)
The
government's response to some of our requests:
- They are considering issuing applied homeschooling families a letter to acknowledge that they have been approved to homechool under ongoing monitoring by the EDB through home visits until the child reaches 15 years of age.
- They may consider renaming the group that handles homeschoolers. (Currently, anyone who doesn't go to school, including mostly truancy cases, are under the Non-attendance case team.)
- They do not have plan to pass legislation about homeschooling.
- They will continue to exercise flexibility towards homeschoolers.
- Homeschoolers are not required to complete compulsory exams/assessments but a curriculum is preferred.
(Note:
Unschooling, i.e., learning without a curriculum, is tolerated. But
our experience tells us the government does not like it, and some EDB
officials do not understand or approve the value in some of the
learning experienced by unschoolers. As parents, if you want to
practise 'unschooling', you need to be prepared to provide a lot of
evidence to prove that your child is learning. It is our experience
that the term 'unschooling' is interpreted negatively by EDB
officials. We recommend using 'self-directed learning' with active
parental support and guidance, or other descriptive alternatives, to
describe unschooling.)
- They encourage families to apply with them if they want to homeschool. (They still do not have a formal route to apply. To apply, just write to the general enquiry contact of the EDB and they will refer your information to the right department. We will update here if we learn more from the EDB.
Tel: 3698 4388
Add:
15/F, Wu Chung House,
213
Queen's Road East
Wanchai,
Hong Kong
- Previous application experience have shown that there will be a few rejections--EDB officials telling applicants there is no way to apply, or the possibility of being issued an Attendance Order, and the possibility of a penalty and imprisonment if there is in infringement of an Attendance Order. We asked the Permanent Secretary at the meeting whether it is possible to change their response by telling people how to apply before giving a warning. She answered that this is quite possible, and they would look into amending the format of their response.
