Schools without Wi-fi, kids without computers in Hong Kong's digital divide
In the era of e-learning, students from poor backgrounds are lagging behind. Charities are doing their best to help, but educators say the government must do more.
On the face of it, Hong Kong seems well on the path to embracing the digital age. After all, the average resident owns at least two mobile phones - penetration stands at 231 per cent - and some 85 per cent of homes have broadband access. At schools, lessons are even presented as video clips online.
Then we meet children such as 11-year-old Tang Suet-laam, who has neither computer nor internet access at home. That often made doing school exercises difficult for the student at Baptist Rainbow Primary School in Wong Tai Sin.
"A lot of homework involves using the computer. I couldn't fill in the exercises for Chinese, maths and English set out on the online forum," she says. "I couldn't use the school computer during lunchtime either as I had prefect's duties. And my mother always fetches me from school before we go to pick up my brother, so I can't stay back to use the computer."
But Suet-laam has found homework a lot easier since October. She was among 100 students who each received a tablet computer from WebOrganic, a charity promoting computer access for disadvantaged youngsters.
Chu Tsz-wing, the principal of Baptist Rainbow Primary School, says although most households take such facilities for granted, this is not the case for many of his young charges.
"I used to teach in a school serving middle-class children and having use of a computer after school is the norm. But after coming here two years ago, I found out that's not the case. Wong Tai Sin is a grass-roots district and most of our students come from poor backgrounds."
Government statistics show internet access has improved in recent years: these days just 4 per cent of the 300,000 low-income households with school-age children are not wired up compared to 13 per cent in 2010.
