Educational Reforms and Coping Strategies under the Tidal Wave of Marketization: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and the Mainland.

This report compares and contrasts the educational reforms and coping strategies that have been adopted by socialist China and capitalist Hong Kong as they face the challenges of global marketization (the introduction of market competition and other private initiatives). It charts marketization's influence on decision-making and social policies around the world. One of the outcomes of this global trend is the international quality-assurance movement in streamlining the education institutions. The paper examines the effects of managerialism on Hong Kong's experience and the policy context of quality assurance in education. It discusses the policy of decentralization in schools and the impact derived from the introduction of internal competition. The text describes similar conditions in the mainland by examining the policy context of marketization of education in China, the policy of decentralization and marketization of education, features of marketized education, and the use of competition to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Examples of market-driven curricula and programs are also provided. The paper concludes by cautioning that recent educational developments in Hong Kong and China have reflected global trends in the reduction of the government's role in education. However, the tide of marketization should not be treated as a simplistic notion of an undifferentiated universal trend. (Contains 99 references.) (RJM)