The early impact of the Secondary School Places Allocation reform in Hong Kong: a study of school choice

Recent educational reforms in Hong Kong aimed to increase choice, diversity and quality of education for everyone. The advocates of school-choice policies claim that more choice is good because it is 'classless' and fairer than planned provision (Chubb & Moe 1990). Everyone has the chance to choose and to decide upon the best providers of goods and services to meet their needs. However, opponents (Gewirtz, Ball & Bowe 1995) argue that social and cultural capital may play an important role in choice-making. They conclude that choice is very directly and powerfully related to social-class, and that 'choice emerges as a major new factor in maintaining and indeed reinforcing social-class divisions and inequalities' (ibid: 55). All such literature prompts the question: what are the main effects of the new school choice policy implemented in Hong Kong in 2001? The focus of this research is, therefore, to investigate the early impact of the new school choice policy in Hong Kong and the reactions of parents and schools. In this thesis, I have employed a multi-method research strategy which includes case studies of four schools, a questionnaire survey of 905 parents and interviews with parents, school managers and policy-makers in order to investigate the early impact of the new secondary school choice (SSPA) policy in Hong Kong. I examined how parents engaged in choosing schools and the subsequent consequences of the policy for the key stakeholders - consumers and providers. The richness of the data reveals the equality issues inherent in the choice process in the unique choice situation in Hong Kong