Achieving a Balance Between Affordability, Accessibility, Accountability, Sustainability and Social Justice: The Early Childhood Education Policies in Hong Kong

Abstract

Since its return to China in 1997, Hong Kong has launched a series of large-scale reforms to establish a new post-colonial education system. Early childhood education (ECE), however, is totally privatised and independently regulated by the market mechanism. Reforming such a private market is thus a challenge to the educational authorities. In this chapter, we will examine the ECE policies that have been implemented (or proposed) from the year 1997 to 2015, through the ‘3A2S’ framework (Li, Wang, & Fong, Int J Chin Educ 3(2): 161–170, 2014). Analyses of the most recent data obtained from the governmental agencies indicate that: (1) The ECE market has been well regulated by the supply and demand mechanism. (2) All the subsidy measures share the aim of assuring children’s equal access to affordable ECE. (3) Self-evaluation and school improvement mechanism has been well established to promote the accountability of ECE. (4) Sustainability of ECE has been highlighted by the policymakers. (5) Social justice has been upheld in the policymaking process. All these findings jointly imply that Hong Kong might be a good case of study for the policymakers in other countries, as it has really achieved a balance between the affordability, accessibility, accountability, sustainability and social justice of ECE.