Educational Leadership and Change: An International Perspective

10. School Management Initiative in Hong Kong - The Devolution of Power to Schools, Real or Rhetoric?

10 School Management Initiative in Hong Kong - The Devolution of Power to Schools, Real or Rhetoric? Wong Kam-Cheung The Needs for SMI in Hong Kong Like many parts of the world, the provision of education for children and youth has been a major endeavour of the Hong Kong government.I In 1992-93, the proposed expenditure in education takes up 16.8%2 of the government budget, of which close to 70% is spent on schools. Ever since the introduction of free and compulsory education in 1979 in Hong Kong, the education system has been inundated with problems. The elitist, grammar oriented schooling which used English as a medium of instruction before 1979 suddenly became inadequate in coping with the massive expansion. In the late 1980s, ten years after the introduction of compulsory education, the education system is still adapting itself to the change. Different programmes, like remedial teaching, school-based curriculum, adopting Chinese (Cantonese) as the teaching medium and using Chinese textbooks have been tried in different stages in some schools. The impact has not been significant. The School Management Initiative (SMI) could be seen as a different, though large scale attempt to meet the change. The SMI is based on the school-based management (SBM) model which gives schools greater control in finance and administration. Similar 1 Hong Kong has achieved nine years free and compulsory education since 1979 and the stay on rate after Secondary 3, the end of compulsory education until Secondary 5 (the age of 17) is over 90%. 2 This represents a total of HK$2,283,792,000 (HK$1 =US$0.128). 142 Wong Kam-Cheung models were implemented in Edmonton in Canada, England, New Zealand and a number of states of Australia since the late 1970s (Brown, 1990; Levacic, 1989; Lingard,1993). The main argument of such an introduction was to cut bureaucratic control and to bring decision making closer to schools. However, during the whole period of the 80s, all these countries experienced increasing financial crisis. The schools were asked to implement the new management model with reduced resources and were expected to achieve financial efficiency. While there is a need to make Hong Kong schools more efficient, the reason is not shortage in resources.3 Rather, the introduction of the SMI could be seen from a more political perspective. Hong Kong is to be merged with China and become a Special Administrative Zone after 1997. Since the 80s, the Hong Kong government has pursued the policy of 'privatization' rather vigorously. A few government departments have become 'private' corporations. School-based management fits this political agenda. The SMI was a product of the Public Sector Reform of the Hong Kong government to streamline its management procedures and to improve efficiency. However, this policy was introduced to schools quite suddenly. The announcement of the SMI in March 1991 jointly made by the Education and Manpower Branch and the Education Department caught many people by surprise. Little public consultation was done beforehand. After the announcement, the schools were asked to decide soon whether they would join the pilot scheme,4 despite the fact that the schools had little knowledge of school-based management. The government also made a strategic blunder by criticizing unkindly the heads of schools in the SMI Report.5 As a result the schools responded negatively. Of the original proposed target of 50, out of a total of 325 aided secondary schools, only 21 schools took part in the pilot scheme in September 1991 (hereafter the SMI schools). A year later, a new promotion campaign was carried out among the secondary schools. Only 13 schools joined and 10 of them were government schools. 3 Because of continuous economic success, the Hong Kong government has had surplus of revenue in almost every year over the past four decades. Often the surplus is three or four times more that predicted at the beginning of the financial year. 4 A circular to invite all aided schools to take part was sent out on 9 May 1991 and the schools were required to make a decision by the end of June. 5 For a criticism of the strategy used by the government. see Wong K.C. (1991). The school management initiative: An initial response, New Horizons, 32, November, 2732 . School Management Initiative in Hong Kong 143 In September 1993, 23 more secondary schools took part; 15 of them were government...