TY - JOUR
T1 - Affordability, accessibility, and accountability
T2 - perceived impacts of the Pre-primary Education Vouchers in Hong Kong
AU - Li, Hui
AU - Wong, Jessie Ming Sin
AU - Wang, X. Christine
PY - 2010/3/1
Y1 - 2010/3/1
N2 - Hong Kong launched the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007 to promote the "3A's" of early childhood education (ECE): affordability, accessibility, and accountability. The PEVS has three unique features: discriminating against profit kindergartens, promoting teacher professional development, and limiting parents' choice to only non-profit schools. To understand the voucher scheme's perceived impacts, this study conducted stratified random sampling to include 10% of Hong Kong kindergartens and surveyed their parents, principals, and teachers. A total of 380 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed, and the results indicated that (1) the majority of the respondents perceived positive impacts on the 3A's of ECE; (2) significant effects of stakeholders (parents, teachers and principals), school types (profit or non-profit), eligibility, and familiarity were found in between- and within-group comparisons; (3) the parents and especially those from non-profit/eligible kindergartens tended to perceive more positive impacts than others; and (4) the principals and teachers reported some implementation difficulties. Implications for voucher reform in others countries are discussed.
AB - Hong Kong launched the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) in 2007 to promote the "3A's" of early childhood education (ECE): affordability, accessibility, and accountability. The PEVS has three unique features: discriminating against profit kindergartens, promoting teacher professional development, and limiting parents' choice to only non-profit schools. To understand the voucher scheme's perceived impacts, this study conducted stratified random sampling to include 10% of Hong Kong kindergartens and surveyed their parents, principals, and teachers. A total of 380 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed, and the results indicated that (1) the majority of the respondents perceived positive impacts on the 3A's of ECE; (2) significant effects of stakeholders (parents, teachers and principals), school types (profit or non-profit), eligibility, and familiarity were found in between- and within-group comparisons; (3) the parents and especially those from non-profit/eligible kindergartens tended to perceive more positive impacts than others; and (4) the principals and teachers reported some implementation difficulties. Implications for voucher reform in others countries are discussed.
KW - early childhood education voucher
KW - policy study
KW - Chinese
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70450237828&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.09.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.09.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:70450237828
SN - 0885-2006
VL - 25
SP - 125
EP - 138
JO - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
JF - Early Childhood Research Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -