Teachers, students and parents to join yellow-ribbon march on Saturday
More than 1,000 teachers, students and parents will march to the government headquarters in Central with yellow ribbons on their arms on Saturday to petition against the closure of under-enrolled primary schools.
The protest is part of the joint campaign staged by the Professional Teachers' Union, the Subsidised Primary Schools' Council and a coalition of more than 20 primary schools. Eighty-one schools have been ordered to stop recruiting Primary One classes.
All primary and secondary schools have been allocated yellow ribbon stickers. Teachers, students and parents have been invited to wear the stickers on Friday to express their solidarity.
More than 10 primary schools belonging to the coalition will also host 'sharing sessions' for teachers, students and parents on Friday, according to PTU president Cheung Man-kwong.
'It's unfair and unreasonable to judge a school based on its number of student admissions in one year,' said Mr Cheung.
'We want to reveal the rigid and ridiculous education policy to the public. If the [Education and Manpower Bureau] continues its arbitrary shutting down of schools, eventually more than half of the primary and secondary schools will have to shut by 2010 because of the falling birth rate.'