A case study on the outsourcing of educational activities in Hong Kong: Issues and considerations

In Hong Kong, many school principals outsourced their extra curricular activities to reduce the workload of teachers and provide more activity options for students. This study reports on a qualitative study aiming at examining the views of a group of sixteen teaching professionals from ten primary schools in Hong Kong on the effectiveness as well as the major concerns about outsourcing extra curricular activities. Findings indicate that three themes emerged from the data regarding effectiveness of outsourcing extra curricular activities to external organizations including (1) reducing teachers workload and cost saving, (2) enhancing the expertise of teachers, and (3) catering for the needs of both parents and students. On the contrary, the major concerns about outsourcing activities were (1) increasing administrative duties, (2) quality of the activities, (3) linking activities to school curricula, and (4) student discipline. It is recommended that school, government and parent representatives be involved in monitoring outsourcing activities. Copyright © 2015 IJTRA. All right reserved.