ESF parents to ask government to block fee rise

Parents angry at fee rises of up to 3.3 per cent for English Schools Foundation (ESF) pupils in the coming academic year are writing to the Education Bureau asking officials to block the increase in schooling costs.

They argue that the HK$27 million cost of giving teachers a 3 per cent pay rise in the 2011-2012 school year should be paid for by cost-cutting, noting that the ESF reported a surplus of HK$89 million last year.

However, ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay said yesterday that the surplus had already been swallowed up by capital spending, and said the next year's surplus would be lower because of inflation and continuing building projects.

Du Quesnay e-mailed parents last week to say the ESF board of governors had decided to increase fees for the coming academic year by between 2.26 and 3.28 per cent, raising fees for most secondary school pupils to HK$95,100 a year.

The rises follow cumulative increases of 29 per cent in ESF primary school fees, 19 per cent in secondary school fees and the introduction of a HK$25,000 refundable capital levy for secondary school pupils starting in September.

The Concerned ESF Parents group, which is campaigning for a freeze on fees and a scrapping of the levy, said supporters had begun writing to the Education Bureau appealing for it to block the latest fee rise. The ESF receives a government subsidy, frozen for the past 10 years, of HK$283 million, and its fee rises must be approved by the bureau.

One parent, a chartered accountant who asked not to be identified, contacted the Sunday Morning Post to argue that the ESF should be able to fund the proposed increase in teacher salaries without raising fees.