Hot Topics: What’s next for Hong Kong primary schools that didn’t meet minimum enrollment for government funding?

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin last month declined to meet about a dozen parents and students. They were petitioning her not to cancel Primary One classes at a local school after it failed to enrol the necessary number of pupils.

Po Yan Oblate Primary School in Wong Tai Sin is one of five schools that will not receive government grants to operate Primary One classes starting from the next academic year. This is because they failed to meet the requirement of enrolling at least 16 pupils for the grade.

The Education Bureau said schools that could not meet the minimum number of entry-level pupils could consider options such as running primary classes on a private basis or combining with other schools. Schools could also ask the authorities to make a special inspection, apply to rejoin the admission system in the next year, or close.

Po Yan Oblate Primary School earlier said it had only enrolled 15 Primary One students. Education authorities had also rejected its application for a special review.

The 58-year-old school may face complete closure in September 2026. Another four schools facing the axe have managed to survive. Two of them have been allowed to run private Primary One classes, and another one is discussing a merger with another school.

Last month, parents and students held signs saying “Po Yan is my home” as they waited for education minister Choi. Some parents said they were told at short notice by the bureau to send their children to other schools.

Choi earlier defended the city’s 16-pupil enrolment rule. She said the requirement had already been brought down from 24 pupils. Any further changes were likely to affect students’ learning, extracurricular activity choices and social development, Choi said.

In recent years, many people have been leaving Hong Kong. The city’s residents have also been having fewer children. Both trends have affected the number of students in Hong Kong. Only 43,755 pupils applied for Primary One places at public schools this academic year. This number fell 10 per cent from last year’s 48,080.

Staff writer

Question prompts:

• Why is the future of Po Yan Oblate Primary School uncertain?

• Based on the information in Context, list TWO developments that have put the school in this situation.

2 Hong Kong primary schools escape Education Bureau axe

Question prompts:

• The cartoon refers to students with learning difficulties. What do the years in the background likely refer to? How would those years have affected a Primary One student with learning difficulties?

• Based on your response above, how might the student’s situation be affected by the closing of schools such as Po Yan Oblate Primary School? Explain your answer using News.

Primary students’ screen time tripled during Covid outbreaks

• Former pupils of Po Yan Oblate Primary School say they were ready to start raising cash to save the school, but their plan is blocked by education chiefs

• News comes after parents and children petitioned education chief Christine Choi for a face-to-face meeting, but their appeal was rejected

Education chiefs have ruled out private classes as an alternative plan for Po Yan Oblate Primary School, which had its request for a review of its operations rejected.

The Education Bureau’s reply last month came after the school’s alumni association vowed to raise HK$3 million to run private Primary One classes to save it from the axe.

The school was the only one among the five threatened schools that applied for a review by bureau officials. But sources said the request was turned down because the school failed to secure a “good” or above rating in its self-evaluation exercise, a requirement for an external review.

The bureau said it had met school representatives to explain why they were rejected for a school review.

“The bureau also made it clear in the meeting that because the school had opted to apply for a special review and it was rejected, it cannot choose another option,” it said. “That is, it will not be able to participate in the Primary One admission system again, nor can they apply to operate Primary One classes privately in the 2023-24 school year.”

“It is a kind of injustice ... our school serves students with special education needs [SEN] wholeheartedly,” said Pang Siu-fong, the chairwoman of the alumni association.

Mrs Chu, a parent whose child is in Primary One and has special needs, told a radio programme last month that her child enjoyed learning at Po Yan Oblate very much as its teachers were experienced in SEN tuition.

“When choosing schools for my kids to be promoted to Primary One, only this school could give me an impression of how they could integrate students with SEN into the whole school and let them lead a normal campus life, and not segregate them,” Chu said. “If such a good school needs to be axed, it will be a loss to students.”

Staff writer

Question prompts:

• Identify and elaborate on TWO groups of people in News who were likely to donate funds if the government had not barred the school from opening private Primary One classes.

• Some have argued that the Education Bureau was too strict by not allowing the school to choose other options because it did not meet the criteria for a review. Do you think this argument is valid? Explain.

90 per cent of Hong Kong primary students secure place at preferred public schools

• Confucian Tai Shing Primary School and the Church of Christ in China Cheung Chau Church Kam Kong Primary School will run private entry-level classes

• Principal of the Confucian school says application to convert it to non-profit private school is being prepared

Confucian Tai Shing Primary School and the Church of Christ in China Cheung Chau Church Kam Kong Primary School will survive after the Education Bureau approved their plans to run private classes.

Debe Yuen Poon Suk-han, the principal of the Confucian Tai Shing Primary School in Wong Tai Sin, revealed it received permission on May 10 to run a private Primary One class in the next academic year. She said an application to convert the primary to a non-profit private school within the next three years was being prepared.

“I am very happy that we are able to fulfil our promise to our students. We have told the parents, and around 18 of them have expressed interest in enrolling [their children] in the class,” Yuen said.

The school aims to recruit at least 25 pupils to the class based on the bureau’s guidelines on small-class teaching.

Yuen said the school was required to submit a 10-page proposal which laid out details such as the operation and curriculum for the class and the support for the transition.

She suggested the bureau should look at factors apart from Primary One intake levels when it decided whether schools could continue to be government-funded. “A mere figure cannot determine the quality of the school or whether it deserves to survive,” Yuen said.

She added the education authorities should also “consider the learning reports, performance of the students, and whether there is growth in their knowledge”.

The bureau “has the relevant data to examine these factors, such as the public exam performance”, Yuen said.

The school is the only one in Hong Kong with a mission to promote Confucianism. “We would not like to see Confucian thought unable to be promoted here just because of the bureau’s decision this time,” she added.

Staff writers

Question prompts:

• Using your own knowledge, Context and Glossary, explain how Confucian Tai Shing Primary School’s operations will be different when it becomes a non-profit private school.

• What does this school offer to the city’s education system that other schools don’t?

• How far do you agree that the bureau should look beyond Primary One intake when deciding if schools can continue to be government-funded? Explain using News and Issue.

Hong Kong primary school facing closure hits back at focus on student numbers

1. alumni association: an organisation formed by graduates of an educational institution

2. emigration wave: refers to a surge of people leaving a particular place. More than 33,600 pupils left Hong Kong schools in the last academic year, an increase of 10 per cent on 2020-21. Over the last two years, the total number of pupils who have left the education system is more than 64,000.

3. falling birth rate: the number of births in Hong Kong has dropped for six years in a row. Only 32,500 babies were born in the city in 2022.

4. five schools not receiving government grants for Primary One classes: refers to the primary schools that did not meet the requirement of enrolling at least 16 pupils for the grade for the next academic year. Po Yan Oblate Primary School requested a special review and was rejected. Confucian Tai Shing Primary School and Church of Christ in China Cheung Chau Church Kam Kong Primary School have been approved to run classes on a private basis. St Charles School is in an area where not all schools implement small-class teaching and will be allowed to join the admission system for Primary One next year. The Salvation Army Centaline Charity Fund School will merge with another school nearby.

5. Primary One admission system: the process by which children are allocated places in primary schools. The city’s public schools currently run a total of about 1,700 Primary One classes. In Hong Kong, the system for Primary One students has two stages. About half of the places are allocated through the discretionary round, where parents get to choose one preferred school for their child. For those whose applications for a discretionary place are unsuccessful, or if they did not apply, they will be included in the government’s central allocation the next year.

6. special education needs (SEN): refers to students with a learning problem or disability that makes it more difficult for them to learn than most children their age. They may have problems with schoolwork, communication or behaviour. In Hong Kong, the major types of SEN include hearing impairment, visual impairment, physical disabilities, intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism and speech and language impairment.

Hot Topics: All about Hong Kong’s exodus of teachers

Context:

• Why is the future of Po Yan Oblate Primary School uncertain? Because the school will not be receiving government grants after failing to meet the requirement of enrolling at least 16 Primary One pupils for the next academic year

• Based on the information in Context, list TWO developments that have put the school in this situation. The city’s falling birth rate and the emigration wave

Cartoon:

• The cartoon refers to students with learning difficulties. What do the years in the background likely refer to? How would those years have affected a Primary One student with learning difficulties? They refer to the period during the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools were closed during this time and this probably had a huge impact on their academic progress.

• Based on your response above, how might the student’s situation be affected by the closing of schools such as Po Yan Oblate Primary School? Explain your answer using News. The potential closing of schools such as Po Yan Oblate Primary School, which is experienced in teaching students with special needs, means there will be fewer schools that will provide an inclusive environment for them and allow them to experience what it is like to learn with peers who do not require additional learning support. The lack of such experience may lead to them being further segregated from the mainstream in secondary school and subsequently in society.

News:

• Identify and elaborate on TWO groups of people in News who were likely to donate funds if the government had not barred the school from opening private Primary One classes. parents of children with special education needs because the school’s teachers are experienced in this field and keeping the school open will mean more options for these students; former students of the school who are now members of its alumni association.

• Some have argued that the Education Bureau was too strict by not allowing the school to choose other options because it did not meet the criteria for a review. Do you think this argument is valid? Explain. I agree with them to a large extent because this closes all other possibilities to the school continuing its operations. It is no longer able to participate in the Primary One admission system again, nor can it apply to operate Primary One classes privately.

Issue:

• Using your own knowledge, Context and Glossary, explain how Confucian Tai Shing Primary School’s operations will be different when it becomes a non-profit private school. Rather than receive public funding from the government, the school may receive funding from various sources, such as donations from individuals or corporations, government subsidies, or grants from philanthropic organisations.

• What does this school offer to the city’s education system that other schools don’t? The school is the only one in Hong Kong with a mission to promote Confucianism.

• How far do you agree that the bureau should look beyond Primary One intake when deciding if schools can continue to be government-funded? Explain using News and Issue. I agree with Yuen that enrolment figures should not be the only determining factor, especially when the city’s school population has been hit by a double whammy of falling birth rates and an emigration wave. The bureau needs to consider other factors such as the quality of education provided and how each school can cater to the diverse population and needs of the city’s students. In the instance of Po Yan Oblate Primary School, the authorities should have taken into account how the school integrates students with special education needs.