Shadow Education in Hong Kong: The Effects of Backwash on Hong Kong Secondary Students

Abstract

Shadow education is a widely discussed topic in Asian countries since this is a popular way of learning for students. In Asian society, parents have invested a lot of money into shadow education, and they hope that their children can stay competitive or climb up the social ladder by getting good grades in public exams. Shadow education becomes a method that some people believe can help students to perform well in the exam, but is this true? In this paper, the focus is on the backwash effects of shadow education, and whether shadow education can help students to perform well in the exam. 12 secondary school students in this study expressed that shadow education can help them in their public exams and it has some positive effects on their overall exam grades. However, there are only a few studies focused on the effects of shadow education on students’ exam performance, and it seems that this area has not been completely discussed in the field of shadow education. As a result, this study hopes to contribute to backwash in shadow education, and whether it can help students to improve their grades in the public exam.

Keywords: shadow education, secondary school education, backwash