Management of outsourcing extra-curricular activities in primary schools: Issues and considerations

In Hong Kong, many school principals have outsourced their extra-curricular activities to reduce the workload of teachers and provide more activity options for students. This article reports on a qualitative study aimed at examining the views of a group of 16 teaching professionals from ten primary schools in Hong Kong on the effectiveness of, as well as the major concerns about, outsourcing extra-curricular activities. The findings indicate that three themes emerged from the data regarding the effectiveness of outsourcing extracurricular activities to external organisations: (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 other hand, 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 the monitoring of delivering outsourcing activities. Copyright © 2015 Education Pub.