Educational Stratification, School Expansion, and Public Policy in Hong Kong

During the 1970s, there was increased state action in Hong Kong's previously privatized educational system. In 1971, primary education was made free and compulsory, and in 1978, free and compulsory education was extended to the first three years of secondary education. This article examines the consequences of this deliberate expansion of secondary school participation using samples from the 1976, 1981, and 1986 Hong Kong censuses to predict continuation in the two levels of secondary schools on the basis of family resources and gender. Hong Kong's expansion of education, the evidence suggests, had a substantial impact on the ability of young people, especially girls, to continue to secondary school, regardless of income.