International and private schools in Hong Kong seek to raise fees by up to 30pc

Hong Kong parents are set to see school fees soar, with the majority of international and local private schools seeking permission to increase rates - in some cases by as much as 30 per cent.

Some 46 international primary and secondary schools - 90 per cent of all international schools - had applied to the Education Bureau to raise fees for the new academic year starting in September, bureau figures released yesterday show.

Eleven sought increases of between 7 and 20 per cent, with the remaining 35 applications falling below 7 per cent. The bureau had approved 20 applications.

A total of 47 local private schools - about 57 per cent of all such schools - had applied for fee increases. Five proposed to raise fees by between 21 per cent and 30 per cent, 12 wanted to push up fees by 7 per cent to 20 per cent, and 30 applied for increases lower than 7 per cent.

The bureau had approved 19 of these applications.

"Given the fact that many of these schools also raise funds higher than others from debentures and other ways, it is worrying that they are still raising concurrent fees by this level," said Civic Party lawmaker Dr Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, who has been campaigning on private and international education issues.

"It is worth noticing that many of these schools' venues are also directly or indirectly subsidised by the government."