Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong: Policies and Issues

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Early Childhood Education
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Table of Contents
Introduction of Hong Kong ECEC policy..................................................................................2
Key issues related to status of free kindergarten education.......................................................3
Theoretical analysis of Hongkong based policies related to free kindergarten education.........5
Influences on Hong Kong ECEC policy....................................................................................7
Critical understanding of one or two ECEC policy developments..........................................10
Impact of policy development (s) on children, families and practitioners...............................12
Policy development in current and future................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................15

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Introduction of Hong Kong ECEC policy
Kindergarten education is one of the most important part for the development of
aesthetics, emotional, social and physical aspects of a child along with the development of the
cognitive and the language skills in the early part of the life. This early education plays a
major role in the helps in the learning in future and the balanced development of the child.
Considering the advanced and the affluent city of Hong Kong, it thus ensures that the
children receive the quality education irrespective of the financial background. The
government has currently set the priorities in to extending the 12 to 15-year education
program so that it can cover the Kindergarten education and also to improve the quality of the
education imparted (Sweeting 2017).
The Kindergarten in the Hong Kong country operates beside the private operators
work in accordance regulation and rules that are set by the Education Bureau (EDB). The
education sector has been found to be characterized by high levels of flexibility in the
vibrancy, diversity, operation and the quick response for the purpose of service needs. There
are different types of views and opinions with respect to the future education policies of
kindergarten education. However, it is important to note that there is a consensus with respect
to the fact that formulation of the new policy must not disrupt the merits and the strengths
that the existing education system already have. The committee for the Free Kindergarten
Education was set up in the year April (2013) and under this committee there are 5 sub-
committees that work on the examination of the issues and the views for making the
proposals and how to implement the same for providing quality education in a sustainable
and practicable manner (Leung 2012).
The importance of the policies is based on the vision of putting the child first and
emphasises on the right start for all children. the main mission of the policy is to provide a

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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
sustainable policy that will be unique for the purpose of imparting the kindergarten education
in Hong Kong and also catering to the diverse needs of the children and along with it
providing the quality education to the children and the process will be equitable, resulting in
the lifelong development of a person. The policies also emphasise on the procedure of
learning that will be fostering an inquisitive mind within the children and will help in
increasing the interest in the exploration and learning. The policies also help in the balanced
development of the confidence, healthy self-concept of the children and guide the children to
get ready for the school (Spodek and Saracho 2014).
I chose this topic over the other because Hong Kong has one of the competitive
education systems where the education system is highly emphasized on examination. The
kindergartens and the child care are all together registered in the education bureau and
provide services for the children that are within the age group of 3 to 6 years. The
kindergarten education has one sole motive and that is to provide all round development of
the child for their future.
Key issues related to status of free kindergarten education
The evaluation of Early Childhood Education (ECE) policy in Hongkong places
sufficient importance on free kindergarten education. There has been significant work
towards the establishment of free education policies for improvement of the Hongkong based
primary school education structure. The early childhood education had been relatively
neglected by Hongkong government till 2000.The early childhood education promotes child
centeredness and holistic development as core values. The goal is to provide optimum
learning environment for the children at the primary school level. The Early Childhood
Education policies aim to bring about a change in the pre-primary education structure by
changing the perceptions and perspectives of the parents. The early childhood education is