According to Census 2011, ethnic minorities under the age of 15 constitute 5.38% of the population of the same age group. In some ‘designated schools’, up to 99% of the student population is ethnic minorities.
The Chinese language education for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong does not meet international human rights standards. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has shown concern over the issue in March 2013.
In March 2013, Unison held the Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language to Ethnic Minority Students.
The amount of annual grant received, the number of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students by grade and the percentage of NCS students of all students in respect of the schools with school-based support programmes specifically arranged for NCS students (the so-called “designated schools”) in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 school years are at Annex A.