SOSC 103D Social Inequality in HK

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SOSC 103DSocial Inequality in HK

• Lecture 24 Educational Inequality

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Educational Expansion in HK

• Stages of education expansion
• 1. During the 1970s
• expansion of the lower level of education
• 2. During the early 1990s
• expansion of university education
• 3. From late 1990s
• expansion of other tertiary education

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• How does the society benefit from the general
  improvement in education?
• Productivity
• Culture
• Who benefit from the expansion?!
• The talented
• The rich

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Persistent Inequality

• Inequality in educational attainment remain
  stable since the early 20th century.
• Hong Kong

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Unequal access to education in HK

• Composition of University Students in 1981 and
  2001
• (David Post, 2003 p.558)

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Educational inequality?!

• Poorer grades
• ? Less likely to get into university
• The class differences in school performance
• or examination grades
• Genetic Effects
• Class differences in IQ
• Lack of endowment for educational success

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Educational inequality?! (cont)

• 2. Income effects
• Direct buying assistance with education
• Indirect general living condition
• Lower income
• Less facilities and assistance
• Poorer grades and performance
• Less likely to get into university

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Other cultural factors

• 3. Cultural effects on school performance
• Use of language (Basil Bernstein)

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Other cultural factors

• Importance of acquiring the right culture
• Newspaper reading
• Type of music
• Leisure activities museum, galleries, travel
• Is school grades the only criteria?!
• Role of cultural capital in HKs educational
  system
• School Admission
• Cultural advantages

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Educational Inequality

• Educational standards reflect the unequal
  structure
• Transform the economic advantages to cultural
  capital

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• Readings
• Ball, Stephen (1986) Education, ch. 4 5