SHENZHEN parents whose children were born in Hong Kong are now facing difficult choices over their children s education, Shenzhen Economic Daily reported.
Many parents said it was easy to obtain a birth certificate in Hong Kong but much harder to choose between two totally different education systems.
Whether to send him to school or kindergarten in Shenzhen or Hong Kong is a dilemma for us. I am now a little regretful of giving birth in Hong Kong, a mother, identified as Chen Chun, told the paper.
In posts on local online forums, some parents thought it was too exhausting for cross-border students, while others thought it would be better to study in Hong Kong because they already had Hong Kong ID cards.
Even when parents insisted on sending their children to Hong Kong schools, they encountered problems. Being a cross-border student is not too expensive and I think the experience can help a child be more independent. The biggest challenge is the different education system and learning environment, a mother, identified as Liu Fei, said.
As a working couple, the Lius were listed as one of the problem families by the school. Dual-income families are problematic as are single-parent families and those who have divorced members.
In Hong Kong, there are a lot of activities that require parental participation and I really don t have much time for that. I cannot help him with his studies, either, because I don t know how to write traditional Chinese characters or English, she said.
The vast difference in the education culture was another problem. The child spends most of his time in Shenzhen, so it is too difficult to teach him English and traditional Chinese characters in daily life. Many mainland students were left behind for similar reasons, Liu said.
One parent said in a post that her son had big problems in communicating with classmates in Cantonese, so he hardly had the chance to express himself and participate in social activities because of a lack of self-confidence. I am very worried that the language disadvantage might be bad for his self-esteem and his future, she said.
Safety was another problem for cross-border students. Liu Xiao complained in a post at www.szhome.com that her 5-year-old son had been hurt by a nanny on the van taking them to school March 14. The nanny, identified as Linlin, quit the job after the incident, but her employer Lianyi School Bus Service said they would no longer take Liu s son to school. Although I reported the case to the relevant department in Hong Kong, it could not help a lot as the vans are in grey areas and there was lack of supervision on both sides, she said.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
