Hong Kong Schools with English Curriculums Face Applications Flood

January 7, 2010 Posted by China Briefing Reading Time: < 1 minute

HONG KONG, Jan. 7 – The 16 schools in Hong Kong that have opted to switch from a fully Chinese language curriculum to a fully English one are facing a flood of applications from parents.

English was taken off the Hong Kong curriculum as a mandatory subject shortly after the handover of Hong Kong to China, and the subject has been focal point of much political and economic commentary ever since. However, despite the government not altering its stance over reintroducing English as a mandatory subject, increasing numbers of schools have been opting to include it in their curriculum.

Demand still outstrips supply, although a more considered balance in dual language schools has begun to emerge, with certain higher education subjects being available in English to prepare students for potential university places overseas.

Mandarin Chinese is the most commonly spoken language in the world with an estimated 845 million native speakers among a global population of 1.345 billion speakers. However, these are almost exclusively based within China itself. English is the fourth most common spoken language after Hindi and Spanish with an estimated 328 million native speakers. However, more than 1.8 billion people can speak English as a second or third language.