SOSC 103D Social Inequality in HK

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SOSC 103DSocial Inequality in HK

• Lecture 25 Family and Education

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Education and Social Inequality
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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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Family Effects

• The role of family background in affecting
  childrens educational outcome
• through various mechanisms
• How do parents transmit their advantage or
  disadvantage to their children?
• How do the family and parents make the
  difference?
• What is happening inside the family?!

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Primary Effects

• Class differences in educational grades
• Genetic effects
• Lack of endowment for educational success
• Research on IQ
• Parental investment
• Material resources spend on children
• Time spend with children

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• Different types of families and their relations
  on parental investment and involvement
• Family income
• Parents educational level
• Parents occupational status
• Type of occupations
• Number of parents are employed
• Family structure
• Single-parent families
• Step families
• Size and composition of siblings
• Races and ethnicity

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Secondary Effects

• There are class differences in educational
• attainment even when students academic
• achievements are controlled!!!
• Class differences in educational choice
• (i.e. stay or leave school)
• Decision on the years of schooling
• Decision on the level of schooling

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• Secondary effect concern about the decision made
  in each school transition.
• Decision on whether to continue education or not
• Decision on the type of schooling
• Decision on the subject that were going to take
  in the school
• Hong Kongs Case
• Vocational training or academic-track after open
  exam?
• Faculties we choose in University

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Secondary Effects (cont)

• Resources effect
• The real cost of further education income
  foregone
• Aspiration effect
• The goal is set according to social origin
• The tendency of risk-aversion
• Cultural/ value effect
• Cultural deprivation

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Example 1 A Band 3 Secondary School in Kwun Tong

• Students Family Profiles
• Working classes family
• 50 are CSSA recipients
• Large amount of single-parent families
• Every week, about 2 to 3 new immigrants will
  knock the school door for school seats (Required
  by EMB)
• Parents with long working hours

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Example 1 A Band 3 Secondary School in Kwun Tong
(Cont)

• Students education performance and attainment
• Each year, only 2 to 3 students enter local
  universities
• Major reason for failing to enter university
  Students poor English language ability (Most
  F.1 students language ability P.4 Level)
• Most F. 5 school leavers study Foundation diploma
  IVE
• Most F. 7 school leavers study High diploma in
  IVE

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Example 1 A Band 3 Secondary School in Kwun Tong
(Cont)

• Learning Environment
• CMI, Gangsters, members of triad society, drug
  abuser
• Students Aspiration
• ¼ of F.3 students have no aspiration to continue
  their studies
• ½ of F.6 students have no aspiration to enter
  universities

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Example 1 A Band 3 Secondary School in Kwun Tong
(Cont)

• Schools Strategy
• Focus on marketing and image polishing for
  prospective students, not on current students
• Objective attract students outside Kwun Tong to
  apply the school so as to recruit better quality
  of newly-admitted F.1 students
• We dont expect we can have graduates who are
  prominent figures in the society we only want
  our students not to commit crimes

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Example 1 A Band 3 Secondary School in Kwun Tong
(Cont)

• Some Analyses
• Effect of District based Allocation System (????)
  --gt clustering of working class students
• Lack of Aspiration of further study
• Peer effect
• Parents encouragement to work (become
  breadwinner to support family)
• Lacking of Social Capital