‘Waiting to die’: 19 Hong Kong secondary schools at higher risk of closure under tighter government rules, as they race to enrol more pupils
- Education Bureau says schools will not be allowed to expand in future if they only manage to run two Form One classes for two consecutive academic years
- School principals warn new policy leaves campuses ‘waiting to die’ as city’s student population expected to continue shrinking in coming years
Nineteen Hong Kong secondary schools face a higher risk of closing down if they fail to enrol enough students by mid-September under tighter government rules, a move that principals have said will leave campuses “waiting to die”.
The Education Bureau earlier informed more than 400 aided and government schools that they would not be allowed to open more classes in the future if they only managed to bring in enough students for two Form One classes for two consecutive academic years.
It added schools that could only run one Form One class in the future would also be required to submit a survival plan to officials for approval or no longer accept new secondary students and begin winding down operations.
Under the new policy, schools must secure at least three Form One classes before each year’s headcount in mid-September to avoid endangering their futures.
Official figures from last year showed 19 subsidised and government secondary schools were each running two Form One classes in the 2022-23 academic year.
Tang Fei, a former secondary school principal and a lawmaker, on Wednesday raised concerns over the “lifespan” of schools that could only run two classes and were “counting down” until they were forced to close.
“A principal used the horrible word – ‘hospice care’ – to describe the new arrangement as schools with insufficient students could not be rescued any more,” he said.
