Tale of Two Cities: Dubai and Hong Kong

“Hong Kong secondary students ranked fourth in PISA tests in reading and maths – dropping two places since 2015. They remained in ninth place for competency in science.” (South China Morning Post 03/12/2019). No one is concerned. No one is interested. There’s more to education in Hong Kong than PISA rankings.

“UAE students still not performing well on international tests” (The Gulf News 07/05/2018). The UAE came 45th in Maths and Science and 46th in Reading but “UAE remains committed to entering top 20 by next round of assessments, in 2021” (The National 03/12/2019). The Vision 2021 commitment is noble, but it is unrealistic. The UAE cannot compete with the tiger nations of South East Asia. Closing the gap is beyond the scope of any KHDA or MoE initiative: it is cultural.

Education

Education is hardwired into Asia’s DNA. The vast majority of parents in Hong Kong are hugely ambitious for their children and hungry for success. Education is seen as the passport to success, wealth and happiness. Money is hard-earned in Hong Kong. Parents in Hong Kong see it as their responsibility to pay for extensive outside school activities and extra tuition and make sacrifices to do so. This is in stark contrast to Dubai where the post-oil boom high-end living and tax-free sunshine create an envious lifestyle where for most parents an international school education is much-resented cost centre rather than an investment and opportunity.

Innovation

Conversely, Dubai’s DNA is rich in Innovation and embracing rapid change. Dubai is a Smart city in the vanguard of innovation. No city in the world moves faster to take on and implement new ideas. It is such a forward-looking city because it both had the wealth to execute change and benefited from not be tied down by having a long history. There were no rules, it was a blank canvas on which its rulers over the past fifty years have executed an exciting vision for the city. If the annual GESS trade fair is anything to go by, I suspect that Expo 2020 will be jaw-dropping.

Despite the fact that the Greater Bay Area manufactures huge amounts of day-to-day technology that is used around the world, Hong Kong itself is quite a conservative city. It is a Capitalist city of bankers and business people for whom the status quo works just fine. There’s a recognition that HK has to move with the times, but all are happy to allow others to be the early adopters who take the risks and make the mistakes. The education system reflects this. Hong Kong has some of the highest performing schools in the world, as the plethora of 45 points and school IBDP averages over 40 testify. There is little incentive to change when you are top of the tree.

Regulation

Perhaps the greatest difference for schools in the two cities is the totally contrasting roles played by the regulators: The KHDA and the Hong Kong Education Bureau are polar opposites. In Dubai, the annual DSIB inspection rating is everything – it is the focus of the year. Despite Dubai’s innovative context, the sadness is that creeping regulation and curriculum demands means that schools have little scope to do anything other than toe the line, lest they be down-graded.

In total contrast, international schools in Hong Kong have the freedom to set their own curriculum and to be whatever they want to be so long as parents are prepared sign up and pay the fees. International schools survive, thrive or fail according to market forces - the system sounds Darwinian but it works. Schools are granted licences to provide a certain type of education and have to make a submission to renew their licence – typically every five years. Other than that paper exercise, there is no inspection regime. In practice, the regulator is more concerned with health issues and pupil safety than academic performance.

Resolution?

Dubai and Hong Kong have much to learn from each other. Hong Kong needs to be less risk adverse and more open to innovation. At present, it does not have sufficiently agile systems in place at a Governmental level to be able to embrace innovation and rapid change. Indeed, it is in danger of being eclipsed in the region by its near neighbour, Shenzhen, which is a smart city looking to challenge Dubai for its title.

Dubai should have the confidence to recognise that it is truly world class at innovation. It should abandon its Vision 2021 aim of marching up the PISA tables and, instead, encourage schools to innovate, take risks and deliver excellence in whatever way they see fit. Indeed KHDA would do well to adopt the more deregulated approach taken by the Hong Kong Education Bureau towards international schools. They should allow competition to drive up standards and give space for schools in Dubai to fulfil their potential to be some of the best schools in the world in the mid twenty-first century.

This article was published by the Education Intelligence Group - as part of their Education Intelligence Report EO2