While I was in Hong Kong I couldn’t help but notice the obscene amount of tutor advertising that goes on. The above photo with Patrick Tong is just an example. Hong Kong tutoring is a massive $460 million industry that produces star millionaire tutors. Obviously Hong Kong parents are very grade-oriented and are willing to shell out the cash to push their children’s grade up, and who wouldn’t when job placement and post-secondary school admissions are rigorously filtered by tests like the HKALE.
I couldn’t find any exact figures, but I’ve always heard that the Hong Kong education system is among the most competitive in the world. In the US about 62 to 69 percent of students who graduate high school enroll in college. Can anybody find that figure for Hong Kong?
Update: A few of my friends commented that only somewhere between 25% and 12% of students who graduate high school in Hong Kong enroll in college in Hong Kong. Wow… I guess that might make Hong Kong more of an international city in a odd way. With that competitive environment and low of a percentage, I’d imagine a lot of students leave Hong Kong and end up networking with people outside during their university years.
