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Education in Hong Kong
Hong KongEducation

Coronavirus: Hong Kong youngsters sign up for online activities during early school holiday

  • Business operators say parents are more willing to send children to online extracurricular classes compared with two years ago
  • Centres offering kids’ activities say early school holidays resulted in more enquiries, enrolments

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Parents have signed up children for a variety of online extracurricular activities during the early summer break. Photo: Handout
Erika NaandWilliam Yiu

Children and teenagers in Hong Kong have enrolled in online classes for everything from music lessons to art and wellness programmes after their early summer break was brought forward during the city’s worst wave of coronavirus infections.

Operators of centres offering extracurricular activities have reported a sharp increase in enrolment and inquiries, adding that parents were more accepting of online classes compared with the start of the pandemic.

Local schools were previously told to bring their summer break forward, closing as early as March 7 until the end of the Easter holiday in April, while kindergartens and international schools were given the option to run online classes.

The decision was part of the government’s efforts to reduce the movement of people amid the current Covid-19 outbreak. The vacated school premises were originally intended to be used as centres for mass testing, but city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Monday the plan had been suspended.

With business usually picking up over weekends and school holidays, private operators have offered a wide variety of extracurricular activities for between HK$200 to more than HK$1,000 per hour.

Housewife Dion Ma, 50, said she was paying about HK$2,000 (US$255) a month since the start of the break for her 11-year-old son to attend various online classes, with subjects including mathematics, violin and debating.

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