Social entrepreneur urges Hong Kong schools to better support non-Chinese speakers

NGO co-founder Manoj Dhar says many schools not adhering to relevant key performance indicators laid out by Education Bureau

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Students sit for a lesson at the IBEL Rusy and Purviz Shroff Charitable Foundation Kindergarten, which fully opened in April. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 9:00am, 23 Jul 2024Updated: 6:53pm, 23 Jul 2024

A social entrepreneur has urged Hong Kong schools to take greater responsibility for ensuring pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds succeed academically as his charity launched its first kindergarten to support non-Chinese speakers.

Manoj Dhar, co-founder of NGO Integrated Brilliant Education Limited (IBEL), said the government had done a “fantastic job” funding education for ethnic minority youth but the school system remained “ghettoised”.

“Every year there’s so much money that goes in, and every year there’s additional massive amounts of money … but the net result is the kids are still struggling,” said Dhar, an Indian-born naturalised Hong Kong permanent resident.

“The schools aren’t doing justice by the children … There has to be accountability.”

Proficiency in Cantonese is widely considered a key driver of success in Hong Kong, creating a hurdle for many of the city’s 33,000 non-Chinese-speaking students.

The government set aside a record HK$589 million (US$75.1 million) in the 2022-23 academic year for measures to support such students, including Chinese enhancement programmes and hiring more teachers.