School-based management in Hong Kong: Centralizing or decentralizing

This paper examined the debate on a reform of school-based management in Hong Kong, which was to set up the Incorporated Management Committee (IMC) to manage the subsidized school. The nature of the debate during legislation and the characteristics of the reform were examined. The advantages, disadvantages and the implications of the reform were discussed. The major concerns of various actors were found to include the control of schools, the mode of participation and the barriers to implementation. It was suggested that via the legislated reform, the control of subsidized schools in Hong Kong will be shifted from “a specific type of community control” to “equal control.” In contrast to some reforms of School Based Management overseas, there has been no decentralizing of power on the part of Government in this exercise. In the opposite, it was argued that by requiring the school sponsoring body to set up the independent IMC and to divide its power of among various stakeholders, the Government would assume increased control in school education. Copyright © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V..