EDUCATION TRANSITION Essay Example

EDUCATION TRANSITION

Education Transition

Introduction

I went to St. Stephen’s College for my secondary education. The school is aimed at improving the students’ lives through offering quality education and therefore preparing them youth for the future roles and responsibilities. The education system which is employed in St Stephen is integrative of both male and female genders, and more importantly, the school system is aimed at improving the talents of the students. There are music festivals held every year in Hong Kong and St. Stephen’s students always participate, the institution had won some music awards including the Gold Award which the students won in the Australian National Festivals. The experience in school was great, but I realized that there were some factors which were affecting the education system including class, gender, ethnicity, and race.

Racism and Education Transition

One of the major factors that influence the education transition in Hong Kong and particularly in St. Stephen College is the racism. Hong Kong as a country is a multi-ethnic region with up to 5% of the total population being the non-Chinese minorities. The students in schools came from those ethnic groups from other countries such as the Indonesia, Philippine’s, Nepal, India, Thailand, and Pakistan. Most of the children of the people from the various ethnic groups have been born and raised up in Hong Kong and therefore enrolling the Hong Kong education system. My classmates were not only the Chinese students; although the largest part of the class was made of the Chinese students, about 20% of the class population was from the other ethnic groups.

Problems faced by Minority Ethnic Groups in Education Transition

I observed the ethnic minorities in St. Stephen College confronted with a broad range of challenges. For instance, the cognitive model of learning is utilized in most Hong Kong schools; adapting to the Chinese education system for the ethnic minorities who have been into other countries’ education systems was not easy. Some students also had limited opportunities in school. For instance, during the music festivals, most of the presented items were done using the Chinese language. The students who are conversant with the Chinese language were excellent in the festivals. However, I remember my friend who was from the Philippines was quite talented in music, but she could not participate due to the language barrier in school (Kennedy 2006, p. 8). St. Stephen College students from non-Chinese ethnic groups are also disadvantages as they lack the basis of the English language which is used in teaching and learning in the school. Additionally, the students from the minority ethnic groups in Hong Kong have difficulty in learning Chinese which is taught as the second language in schools. These barriers affect the transmission of knowledge in schools to a great extent (Kennedy 2006, p. 9).

Gender and Education Transition

Gender insensitivity during my secondary school education was conspicuous. Most of my classmates and the largest number of students in the whole school were the boys. The girl child in Hong Kong is still denied the right to education. The girl child still faces stereotyping from the society. I recall every time my social studies talked about the class; she mentioned that it is important to promote gender equality and to disregard the traditional perception that only the male gender has a right to be in school. Despite the education reforms, women have not benefited much from education (Yanbi 2010, p. 3). I remember in my class there were only seven girls out of 30 students. All the rest were boys, and the school population followed the same trend. According to the education reports in Hong Kong, there have been efforts in enrolling more girls to foster social justice (Chan 2012, p. 5). However, when we went to the music festivals and interschool conferences and even during the parent’s meetings in schools, there were a lot of campaigns towards fostering the girl child education and empowering women in the society. However, the government of Hong Kong is usually reluctant in supporting such campaigns as it is believed that pupils are taught about gender inequality in schools, and it is just enough. Nevertheless, the campaigners commented that among the other Asian countries, Hong Kong has a relatively large number of women who get access to the secondary education. I attended a conference in the city held by the branch of child rights plan organization in Hong Kong; I was surprised to hear the problems the few girls who joined secondary schools faced as they aimed at quenching their education thirst. The girls from St. Stephen College and the girls from other schools experienced related problems such as discrimination in the society as they are seen to divert from the norms and the tradition of the land. Other pressures which were expressed by the girls in the conference included problems in securing job opportunities in the male-dominated careers such as engineering. The rationality behind the difficulty in some careers was the societal expectation that the girls are supposed to be mothers and housewives, and that is where they fit well. Despite the excellent performance of the few girls who go to secondary schools in Hong Kong, the pressures are unbearable if they are lucky to get employment after school (Blandy 2016, p. 3): (Mathieson 2016, p. 3).

Class and Education Transition

In Hong Kong class is determining factor on the line of profession and class status in Hong Kong. Education is the ladder to ascending in the high class in Hong Kong. I also remember that my teachers always advised us that everything in life has the basis of education. They said that if one wants to be successful in life, have the best food and the best family as well as the general life. Social mobility enables one to move from one social stratum to the other. The education level is creating increasing the middle class and the higher class (Kan 2017, p. 4). I strived in school looking forward to living a better life in future. The social transition in Hong Kong highly depends on education. The government of Hong Kong is starting to reinforce the primary and the secondary education to magnify the success to the economy of the country (Tao 2016, p. 7).

Social Darwinism

The social Darwinism theory is highly experienced in the education transition. Human beings’ social characteristics such as ethnicity and race are subject to nature’s laws such as the natural selection of Darwin’s theory. I have experienced diminishing of some cultural activities which are less beneficial to the society of Hong Kong and adoption of the most relevant cultural practices in the aim of surviving in the society and more importantly in the improvement of the social classes. The competition in the society today and especially in the education-based matters is continually becoming stiff every century. The society is constantly evolving so does the education transition. More girls are becoming learned despite the social stratification in the society. I have been watching career documentaries, and notably, although they are few, women are continually applying for the careers which are perceived to belong to the men domain.

The quest to belong to the middle and high class in the society is making students work extremely hard to avoid being overwhelmed by the country’s economy. Campaigns are continually conducted by different non-governmental organizations to bring to an end the practices of discrimination in education facilities. Promotion of gender equality and embracing differences among the students who are in school is essential. The education transition is following the social Darwinism trend, and the value of education is continually growing in Hong Kong.

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