We believe too deeply about one cent=one cent of goods. That's why middle class parents keep believing that DSS/private school offers better education. Sure those schools might have bigger campus and better facilities, but when it comes to teaching quality, I don't think they do any better than govt/subsidized schools.
DSS/private schools are relatively new(unless for a few that are formerly govt/subsidized schools). Think from the perspective of teachers, who would want to work in new schools? Very rarely would be those who taught well in the current school but are willing to leave for the mission of the new school. I bet most of them are students who just got their first degree and cert. ed. + those teachers who weren't doing well in the previous teaching positions.
And if you are someone with a mission to serve, with good credentials and is looking for a teaching job, wouldn't you prefer working in govt/subsidized schools to serve all tiers in the society than to serve the richer tier only?
As a matter of fact, govt/subsidized schools do have much more stringent rules to follow when employing teachers.
原帖由 kaifu 於 08-10-13 13:23 發表
There seems to be a myth among us that DSS/private schools in general offer higher quality education than govt/subsidized schools. However, except for the very few brand-name schools which were conve ...
I am sorry to say that the arguments here are rather futile.
There are good DSS / private schools as well as bad ones, & the same is true for government / subsidised schools.
You can only compare like with like - eg DBS & La Salle, or DGS & Maryknoll.
Otherwise, there are always some DSS / private schools (eg SPCC, DGS) that are better than most government / subsidised schools and there are always some government / subsidised schools (eg La Salle, Maryknoll) that are better than most DSS / private schools!
At the end of the day, if you have a choice, then you need to look at each individual school's merit, rather than a broad generalisation of what category the school belongs to.
It is rather fair to "generalize" that those through-train schools which started as a DSS on Day 1 will need many years to demonstrate whether they can deliver what they promise. At this stage they simply don't have a track record. Based on what we know about the hiring systems in different schools, there are legitimate reasons to question the stability and quality of the teaching staff in the new DSS schools, since it also takes a long time to establish a good team of teachers in both their primary and secondary sections.
On the other hand, the brand-name DSS schools were all formerly successful subsidized schools (as far as I know, no govt schools have been and will be converted to DSS/private schools). They already have well-established teaching teams and a long history of excellent track record.
原帖由 mow-mow 於 08-10-13 16:14 發表
I am sorry to say that the arguments here are rather futile.
There are good DSS / private schools as well as bad ones, & the same is true for government / subsidised schools.
You can only compare like ...
Thank you for opening this topic. I also went through the process of choosing DSS/private vs subsidized school for my kid. Here are some advice that I'd like to share with parents who will visit some schools in future:
1) Don't pay too much attention on the school ideals. Unless the speaker is really bad, it is difficult not to agree with the school mission. Try every means to know more about how actual teaching has been like. One way to do this is to try to flip thro' exercise books of current pupils (sometimes you get access to those on the school's open day) to see how teachers marked pupil's homework----I am very amazed to read "Cantonese style Chinese" remarks written by teachers of a DSS which claimed to cultivate high quality bi-literate and tri-lingual students.
2) Try to sense the morale and manners of the teachers. You may test out their baselines by throwing questions to them. If they can't communicate rationally with an adult, you can guess how they would treat primary school kids.
3) Observe details of the school environment. I once came across a school that is having obselete topics exhibiting on the boards of classrooms.
4) Don't restrict your choice too early. Try to broaden your view by visiting both DSS/private and subsidized schools. Attend their seminars so that you have more refined comparison.
I do agree with some of what you are saying.
However, not all brand name DSS were formerly successful subsidised schools.
DBS primary school is effectively a brand new school as it wasn't converted from DPS, which still runs as a subsidised school.
Ying Wah only had a subsidised primary school for a few short years before converting it to a DSS.
So neither DBSPS nor Ying Wah can claim any good track record as they really don't have any!
Even SPCC can be argued to be a new school as there used to be 2 separate branches (Kennedy Road & MacDonald Road). The current SPCC primary school became a DSS after the merger of these 2 branches. Changes have been unavoidable - is it good or bad - only time can tell.
Your questions on the stability and quality of the teaching staff as well as the length of time required to establish a good team of teachers....etc in many ways also apply to these 3 schools.
Given the choice, I think most parents will choose one of these 3 over most government / subsidised schools.
My point is that new doesn't necessarily mean inadequate. That's why generalisation isn't very helpful.
Given the prospect of getting into Ying Wah, DBS or SPCC secondary sections, all of which having a good track record, I don't think we need to argue about why their primary sections became our favorite picks.
What I want to "generalize" ( i am not sure if it is a good word to use) is that those ALL-NEW DSS through-train schools may not neccessarily turn out to be what people expect at the very beginning, especially for their secondary sections. There is a certain degree of "risk" if we put our kids there. This may be a factor that some parents want to consider before they finalize which school they send their kids to. On the other hand, some parents may have full confidence in those schools for different good reasons. Please be reminded that not everyone holds the same view and this is perfectly natural! Take it easy, mow-mow.
原帖由 mow-mow 於 08-10-13 17:37 發表
I do agree with some of what you are saying.
However, not all brand name DSS were formerly successful subsidised schools.
DBS primary school is effectively a brand new school as it wasn't converted fr ...
發表於 08-10-13 15:28
