Under amendments to the Education Ordinance made in 2004, school sponsoring bodies are required to submit a draft of the constitution of their incorporated management committees to government by July 1, 2009. Forty per cent of committee members must be parent, teacher, alumni representatives or independents, with the remaining 60 per cent appointed by sponsoring bodies.

The Catholic diocese's application for a judicial review of the ordinance on the grounds that it contravened the Basic Law was rejected last year, but chancellor Father Lawrence Lee Len said the appeal would be heard by the High Court in March.

'According to our legal advisers, we still have arguments to uphold our appeal,' he said.

Father Lee said the church believed the policy should not be compulsory for every school because there were other models which enabled teachers, parents and alumni to take part in formulating policies.

'We are worried that if we accept this new model then the church as a sponsoring body might not be able in the future to supervise the schools ... or be able to achieve the goals and objectives of a Catholic education,' he said. The IMCs would empower alumni, parents and teachers.

'It's not to say that we don't trust them but sometimes because of different values, different perspectives and different concerns we might not be able to convince them or implement the objectives of Catholic education in our own schools.'

Father Lee said theoretically, if the church lost its appeal it would have to follow government policy. But it would still try to 'recruit more people who share our vision and our objectives in running schools and education so that we can have a better say under the new system'.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun has previously warned that if the church found it could not run some schools according to its own objectives, it might be forced to close them.

When asked whether the church would consider pulling out, Father Lee said it was too early to say.

Timothy Ha Wing-ho, education adviser for Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, which operates about 80 Anglican schools, said the sponsoring body had 'fairly grave reservations' about the IMCs.

Asked whether the group would consider withdrawing its support of schools if forced to implement the changes, he said: 'I don't know. At this early stage it would not really be very advisable to say 'if this happens I would do that'.'

Mr Ha, who is also chairman of the Association of Sponsoring Bodies of Schools, said he hoped the new education officials would review the matter. Former education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung was replaced by Michael Suen Ming-yeung in last month's cabinet reshuffle, while Raymond Wong Hung-chiu replaced Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun as permanent secretary last October.

'I hope the new people coming into office will sit down with the sponsoring bodies again and talk cordially about the whole thing,' Mr Ha said.

Reverend Yuen Tin-yau, executive secretary for school education at the Methodist Church, said the sponsoring bodies would try to contact the new officials. He said the church would not voluntarily hand the schools back to the government.

'If the government takes it back OK, but we won't hand them back in a proactive way. We want to run the schools,' he said.

The Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches operate about 170 schools. Education Bureau figures show 188 of 910 aided schools had implemented IMCs by the end of June. The bureau has approved another 78 IMC constitutions and is processing 30 draft constitutions.

A bureau spokesman said some of the school sponsoring bodies with religious backgrounds had shown no interest in setting up IMCs.

'I have to reiterate that the timeline has been set in accordance with the law so we expect that they will act according to the law,' he said.

Sik Sik Yuen's nine aided schools have had IMCs since 2005. Its only school without a committee will close this summer.

Assistant secretary Maggie Siu Tze-kwan said the process of implementing the new management system had gone smoothly.

'We think it's good. Because we have already had parents and teacher representatives before, they are quite familiar with the style,' she said.