Should Schools Have Debentures at All?

Adrian T., 13, GSIS

        Recently, ESF have increased the amount of debentures to a staggering HKD $500,000. This debenture is a non-refundable amount in which a well-to-do parent will pay the school in order to secure a place for their child in the school should they meet the admission requirements of the school. This move by ESF has been criticized for favoring the rich over the poor and will take away places for less-well-off families. ESF schools are subsidized by the government to provide an alternative for those who do not want to go to local schools (or cannot because of the lack of Cantonese skills), and cannot afford the school fees offered by the international schools. If ESF schools implement this system, they may be in danger of having their government subsidies taken away from them and forced to go private, in which it would raise the school fees and directly affect less wealthy families. Although this system may help raise money for repairing and renovating ESF schools, they are sending the wrong signal to those who want to go to ESF schools. This brings up a very good point that is ripe for debate: Should schools have a debenture system? In my opinion, I think that schools should not have a debenture system, as education and school placement should not involve money except for school fees.

        Education is a right that everybody is entitled to. Every child, no matter rich or poor, should be allowed to have a decent education in order to give them a fair start to life. Education should not be associated with a monetary value, and schools should choose students according their skills and abilities, not according to whether they can pay or not. Education is not a market; it is a place where a child can learn so that they can be better equipped to be a fruitful member of our society. If we put the buying power of their parents, something they have no choice over, then we would be throwing away our society’s cherished values of fairness and equality. This would then send a very adverse and strong message to the people of Hong Kong: Education can be bought, and money is the leading factor when applying for a school. This is not the message we want to send to parents in Hong Kong and the people that will potentially immigrate to Hong Kong. This will in turn undermine Hong Kong’s moral values and create a bad impression for Hong Kong.

        Having a debenture will also potentially affect a close-knit school community. Let’s say some people come into a school because of the newly implemented debenture policy. The people who come into this school will therefore be less qualified but have super rich parents. If the school community is less well-off, then they will not be able to integrate into the school community because they are inferior to the others because they are relatively richer than the other students are. They may also look down on others for being not as rich, or the others may exclude them for being richer than they are. This would create a whole bunch of problems for the community and the pros will outweigh the cons. In addition, the rich kids that came into this school because of this debenture system may not be as smart and so they may lower the school’s standard.

        Some people say that the implementing of a debenture system will help ease the burden of the other parents as they will not have to pay too many school fees due to the revenue generated from the debentures. However, I disagree. There are so many other risks and controversial free ways to get more money for the school such as applying for government subsidies, asking more well of parents to donate some money, starting a fundraiser, etc. These methods are much more effective than having to implement a debenture system that will put the school’s reputation, standard, and society’s values at risk.