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Integration is the key to successful education
The key to successful education is integration, rather than segregation. Many students coming from China have proved that they can adapt easily to the local education environment if given the chance.
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Ling Yin considered himself lucky to get a school place in just a few days when he came to Hong Kong last year. His principal was most surprised as he did exceptionally well in the English admission test. Before coming to Hong Kong, his mother realised that the major problem of Ling Yin was English and therefore, she made a plan for his son to start learning the language a year ago in China.
Li Yuan-yuan, a mainland-born-and-raised girl, moved to Hong Kong in December 1993. She secured a school place in January 1994.
"Some schools simply said they had no place and others said my daughter's English was far below standard," Yuan-yuan's mother said.
Ling Yin and Li Yuan-yuan are now Primary Six students of Tsuen Wan Lutheran School.
The principal, Ms Saelly Lee, said: "Ling Yin always comes out at the top of the list in the school examinations and Yuan-yuan is the school prefect who helps the teachers a lot in maintaining class discipline. I am glad to see that they are allocated to a secondary school of their preference in the coming school year.
"We enrol a lot of immigrant students each year. Unlike what most people think, these children have not added to our difficulties.
"It is true that these children will have some problems with English in the beginning, but they study hard and not long after, most of them can catch up or even get to the top," Miss Lee said
"We should not label the immigrant students.
There should be no
discrimination but acceptance," English teacher Miss Lau Oi-lin said.
"Other than English, they are in fact ahead of local students in most subjects. That is to say, if they can spend more effort and time on English, they can easily catch up with the study," another English teacher, Mr Chung Lung-cheung said.
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