School-based Management

SBM in Hong Kong represents a typical example of re-centralization dressed up in the form of decentralization.  The SBM movement started as an initiative known as School Management Initiative (SMI) in 1991 before the change over of sovereignty in 1997.  SMI was in essence a managerial restructuring, aiming at tightening the control of the aided school sector (see discussion below).  The system of government aid to schools has a long history.  Schools in Hong Kong were first established by the missionaries, and in 1873, the government introduced a grant-in-aid scheme to subsidize these mission schools (Sweeting, 1990, p.209).  Over the years, more religious bodies and other voluntary organizations (such as merchant associations) operate schools.  Even up to this day, the majority of the schools in Hong Kong are operated by these voluntary bodies (only about 6% of these schools are managed directly by the government), though they are fully subsidized by the government.  With the help of these SSBs, Hong Kong underwent a massive expansion in its education provision in the seventies and early eighties.  After this quantitative expansion, when the government turned its attention to the quality of schooling, it was found that the legal, funding and management framework which had been governing these aided schools, originally meant for a much smaller number of schools, was inadequate for the purpose of quality control.  There are at least four reasons for such inadequacy:

1. The number and variety of SSBs are much larger than when the system was first set up. Many voluntary agencies other than the churches are now operating schools.  In the early 1990s for example, there were more than 221 such SSBs (Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department, 1991, p.11), and quality control became an issue for the government.
2. The legal framework, which originated in the early colonial years with the aim of containing political influence from the mainland, was no longer relevant given the imminent return of sovereignty to China
3. The roles and responsibilities of the various parties (EMB1, ED1, SSBs; School Management Committees (SMCs) etc.) were not clearly defined in the existing framework.
4. The funding mechanism for the aided schools was too rigid.

The SMI document (Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department, 1991) made it clear that SMI is part of the government's Public Sector Reform, hence the earlier assertion that it was in essence a managerial restructuring.  The document spelled out the concerns of the government listed above, but it should be mentioned that these were only problems as identified by the government.  As far as the schools were concerned, they found that the existing system of partnership between the SSBs and the government had been working well.  Therefore, when the document was released in 1991, not much enthusiasm for the initiative was shown in the school sector.

The government however pushed on with the initiative, and in the Education Commission report No. 7 (ECR7) released in September 1997, SMI was renamed School Based Management, and packaged with the label of "quality school education".  So what was instigated as a managerial restructuring is now packaged as a measure of quality enhancement, and promoted in the name of educational decentralization.  In his first policy speech in October 1997, C.H. Tung, the Chief Executive of the newly formed Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, endorsed the recommendations of ECR7 and hence made it government policy.  A committee was set up by the government to work out the details of the SBM measures.  But by this time, what was originally a measure to rationalize the roles of various stake holders became a device by which the government shifted the authority from the SSBs to the other stake holders.

This shift of authority needs to be understood in the context of the history of Hong Kong.  In the colonial days, because of the religious root of the British Government, the Christian churches were seen to be receiving favour from the colonial government, and this is manifested in the area of education.  Most of the prestigious schools in Hong Kong are church-run schools, and some alleged that these schools were better off not because they had been doing well but because of the favour they received from the colonial government.  Now that sovereignty is changed to a government which has no bias towards Christianity, the change over provided a golden opportunity for reshuffling of power, and the SBM move was seen by many as the government's attempt in ripping the power off from the Church.

Seen in this light, the SBM movement under the label of decentralization is in reality a re-centralization of authority (regaining of control of the schools from the SSBs), or at most a deconcentration where power is shifted from those that are seen to be less supportive of the government to those sectors which the government has more control of.

References

.........

Education and Manpower Branch and Education Department (1991). The School Management Initiative: Setting the framework for quality in Hong Kong schools.  Hong Kong: Hong Kong Government.

Education Commission (1997). Education Commission Report No. 7: Quality School Education. Hong Kong: Hong Kong SAR Government.

Sweeting, A. (1990). Education in Hong Kong pre-1981 to 1941: Fact and Opinion.  Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.