Abstract
Background: Hong Kong SAR Government, via the legislation in 2004, required school sponsoring bodies to set up independent and widely represented Incorporated Management Committees to manage subsidized schools.
Aims: This paper examined the concerns of various actors and the nature of the debate during the legislation of the School-based Bill. It analyzed the characteristics of the reform and compared it with the early form of School-based Management (SBM) in Hong Kong and also with the SBMs introduced in some Western countries. Lastly, this paper discussed the influences of the reform on local school education.
Arguments/comments/suggestions: The concerns of various actors over the legislation were found to include “the control of school”, “the mode of participation of various stakeholders” and “barriers to implementation”. The current reform and the early reform of SBM in Hong Kong stressed upon school accountability and school effectiveness respectively. The legislation led to the restructuring of the relationship between the school sponsoring body and the school management committee. It has introduced a mode of school governance similar to “Equal Control”. As a result, the control of the school sponsoring body over schools would be significantly reduced and the influences of other stakeholders upon schools would increase. It was argued that by introducing the reform, the Government, unlike those of some western countries, did not decentralize its power in school education, but instead assumed increased control in the local education system.
Conclusion: The essence of the debate on School-based Bill is “who should control the school?”. By legislation, the governance of subsidized schools has been changed towards “Equal Control”. The status of the school sponsoring body in the education system would be significantly lowered.
| Keywords: | school-based management; school governance; parent involvement |
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