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Heads step up fight for small classes

May Chan

PTU chairman backs principals' solution to decline Primary One numbers

Primary school principals across Hong Kong yesterday banded together to push for smaller classes.

The chairmen of 12 primary heads' associations, representing 60 per cent of primary schools in Hong Kong, issued a joint statement demanding small class teaching in their districts and providing a formula for bringing it in across the territory.

This would set the minimum class size for a district by taking the total number of Primary One students and dividing it by the number of Primary One classes in the previous year.

Ng Shun-cheong, chairman of the Sha Tin Primary Heads Association, said: 'In this way the government would not have to pay extra money to implement small class teaching in the districts.

'The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) should allow district-based small class teaching across Hong Kong. Schools in the districts should be allowed to make their own decisions in regard to how many students they take.'

The group was joined by Cheung Man-kwong, legislator elect and chairman of the Professional Teachers' Union, which is backing their demand and has been meeting heads in various districts to discuss the small class campaign.

Mr Cheung also met separately with the Sha Tin Primary School Heads Association yesterday to thrash out the strategy it will put to Fanny Law Fan Chui-fun in talks next month over the issue.

The Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower pledged this week to meet Sha Tin heads in early October to discuss their demands for pooled admissions to enable schools to launch small class teaching and save less popular ones from closure.

They have called on the EMB to allow schools in Sha Tin district, where the number of Primary One pupils has plummeted by 1,900 to 3,300 this year, to lower the minimum class size and transfer additional children to other schools.

The EMB currently requires schools that cannot recruit at least 23 students in Primary One to shut the classes, and close entirely three years' later. The standard class size set by the EMB is 37, and 32 for schools adopting the 'activity approach' to teaching.

The heads' formula would set it at 20.9.

Mrs Law's move came after Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, Secretary for Education and Manpower, had rejected their request, despite allowing Chi Tak Public School in Wong Tai Sin to continue a Primary One class with just five students. Professor Li said the five children would face long journeys to other schools and new immigrant children were expected next year.

Mr Ng said: 'We won't tolerate any double standards in education policy, and the government must allow different districts to adopt their own strategy in student admissions.'

The Sha Tin primary school population was expected to increase slightly in 2006, he said. The government should allow under-enrolled schools to survive to prepare for this, like it had with Chi Tak.

In Ma On Shan, which will have less than 900 Primary One students in the next school year compared with 1,100 this year, just three of the 13 schools in the town have enough places for nearly half of the cohort.

In this month's discretionary places allocation exercise, Ma On Shan Ling Liang Primary School has taken 165 students, Po Leung Kuk (PLK) Riverain Primary School 160, and Sheng Kung Hui (SKH) Holy Spirit Primary School 110.

Mr Wong said that if the three schools cut their class sizes they could spare scores of pupils for other schools.

'Students could enjoy smaller class sizes and the problem of under-enrolment could be eased,' he said. 'There are many good schools in Ma On Shan and Sha Tin. It would be sad see them closing just because of the shrinking student population.'

Both the PLK and SKH schools moved into new campuses in 2000, while the Ma On Shan school had undergone school improvement, he said.

Wong Sang-ming, principal of the PLK school, said: 'Smaller class sizes would no doubt benefit both teachers and students because it means a more interactive and personalised teaching and learning approach. However, it may also mean that fewer parents can get their children into their chosen schools. It may be better to leave it to the schools to determine their class size.'

Mr Cheung said: 'I really hope that Fanny Law's invitation is a gesture that the EMB is finally willing to listen to public opinion on small class teaching.'

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