Hong Kong is often recognized as an international city and one of the most significant financial centres globally. Yet this does not imply the city itself is culturally diverse. A close look at the demographics of Hong Kong reflect that its population is rather mono-cultural. According to the government’s 2016 Census, ethnic minorities constitute a mere 8% of the whole population, whilst 92% is Chinese. When this 8% is broken down, the majority are foreign domestic helpers of Filipino (31.5%) and Indonesian (26.2%) origins; followed by South Asians (including Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese, Bangladeshis and Sri-Lankans) which take up 14.5% (Census and Statistics Department, 2017). The insignificant representation of ethnic minorities …show more content…
Whilst primary education is mandatory for all children, it is only provided free of charge at government and aided schools. Access to the later four types of schools is uncommon for the majority of South Asian students because of their high tuition …show more content…
The policies of ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ (liangwen sanyu) and ‘mother-tongue teaching’ were introduced with aims to balance the status of English, Cantonese and Putonghua - neglecting the ethnic minorities by the assumption that students in Hong Kong all share the same mother tongue (Fang, 2011). Due to limited mastery of the Chinese language (Cantonese and Putonghua as spoken forms, and traditional Chinese characters as written form), South Asian ethnic minorities are unable to enjoy the full range of school choices despite claims that they are placed in the same POA system as their Chinese counterparts and given ‘equal’ accessibility to mainstream schools in the public