School books in Hong Kong are very different than when I grew up in the USA.
In the USA, we had 'text books' these were owned by the school, and every year we would get this large heavy hard cover text books, one for each subject. We would bring them home and cover them in paper to protect them - in our case often brown paper grocery bags - and return them at the end of the year. Of course, we were not supposed to write in them, but one of the first things we would do every year, was see if there were any notes or names from whomever had the book the year before!
In Hong Kong, we get a long list of books, often 5 or more per subject for each term. This includes text books, work books and maybe a special book like grammar or similar/ The books are thin paper back books, A4 size, and are used by one student, for one term only.
The positive of this method, is text books are updated regularly. The negative is that it is very confusing as to which books to take on which days, and of course we have to recycle the books.
The photo on the this page is just Natty's books for one semester! Sassy has a similar size stack, and they will get them again next semester. They don't need to bring every book, every day - just for the classes they have that day. But even with that, their bags are heavy so we bought them wheeled bags.
We are given an order sheet from the school. we return it with a check, and the books are delivered to the school before the semester starts. If we miss the order, we can get them straight from the incredibly chaotic text book shop in Yuen Long - this job has been exclusively outsourced to my hubby. Same goes for uniforms - we can order and collect them through the school or at the special uniform shop in Mongkok.
The books cost about 1500 HKD (190 USD) per semester for each kid. Uniforms cost about the same, because we buy 3x of each so we don't run out through the week (one to wear, one to wash, one to dry). I always buy them a bit large so they last two years. These are the only costs we have for the school year, so we are fine with it.
For families that cannot afford the books and uniforms there are government subsidies for which they can apply. The schools also collect uniforms to redistribute to those in need.
Hong Kong public schools are excellent, free, and with very minimal additional expenses - books and uniforms, and sometimes an air conditioning fee of 100 HKD (13 USD) per semester. Extra curricular activities and field trips are heavily subsidized and either free or very cheap. We really cannot complain about the cost-benefit ratio!
In the USA, we had 'text books' these were owned by the school, and every year we would get this large heavy hard cover text books, one for each subject. We would bring them home and cover them in paper to protect them - in our case often brown paper grocery bags - and return them at the end of the year. Of course, we were not supposed to write in them, but one of the first things we would do every year, was see if there were any notes or names from whomever had the book the year before!
In Hong Kong, we get a long list of books, often 5 or more per subject for each term. This includes text books, work books and maybe a special book like grammar or similar/ The books are thin paper back books, A4 size, and are used by one student, for one term only.
The positive of this method, is text books are updated regularly. The negative is that it is very confusing as to which books to take on which days, and of course we have to recycle the books.
The photo on the this page is just Natty's books for one semester! Sassy has a similar size stack, and they will get them again next semester. They don't need to bring every book, every day - just for the classes they have that day. But even with that, their bags are heavy so we bought them wheeled bags.
We are given an order sheet from the school. we return it with a check, and the books are delivered to the school before the semester starts. If we miss the order, we can get them straight from the incredibly chaotic text book shop in Yuen Long - this job has been exclusively outsourced to my hubby. Same goes for uniforms - we can order and collect them through the school or at the special uniform shop in Mongkok.
The books cost about 1500 HKD (190 USD) per semester for each kid. Uniforms cost about the same, because we buy 3x of each so we don't run out through the week (one to wear, one to wash, one to dry). I always buy them a bit large so they last two years. These are the only costs we have for the school year, so we are fine with it.
For families that cannot afford the books and uniforms there are government subsidies for which they can apply. The schools also collect uniforms to redistribute to those in need.
Hong Kong public schools are excellent, free, and with very minimal additional expenses - books and uniforms, and sometimes an air conditioning fee of 100 HKD (13 USD) per semester. Extra curricular activities and field trips are heavily subsidized and either free or very cheap. We really cannot complain about the cost-benefit ratio!
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