Changes cramp schools' style
Some are launching fund-raising drives to build new teaching blocks, others are partitioning covered playgrounds into study areas or converting changing rooms into classrooms. Schools are scrambling to create extra space by September to accommodate a sharp swell in the student body for the coming academic year, when youngsters under old and new academic systems will study alongside each other.
'It will be a nightmare,' says Jonathan Lai Ping-wah, principal of Lee Kau Yan Memorial School in Wong Tai Sin.
The space crunch stems from the transition to the 3-3-4 educational system introduced in 2009. In the past, about half of its students would leave after Form Five due to poor results in public exams while the rest would stay for another two years to take A-Level exams that might provide admission to a three-year degree programme. Under the new set-up, all Form Five students this year will progress to Form Six before sitting for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education and deciding whether to go on to a local university. That means secondary schools will be dealing with many more Form Six students than before. Moreover, the new curriculum offers a wide range of electives and dozens of subject combinations that will require additional classrooms. Yet, schools still have to house the last batch of teenagers sitting for A-levels.
So, even as school prepare to break for the summer, principals such as Lai are busy trying to transform available space into classrooms.
'A locker room in the auditorium is being converted into a classroom,' says Lai. 'As there are no windows in the room, we have to install air conditioning. The student activity room will be partitioned off into two classrooms.
'It's not an ideal learning environment, but there are no other ways to deal with the crisis.'
His school houses 28 classes now, and must fit in two more when the new term starts, but Lai says the Education Bureau hasn't been giving them sufficient support to deal with the lack of space.
'The government suggested that we use libraries and teachers' rest areas to conduct lessons. But those places are not registered classrooms. There will be legal concerns if accidents like fires break out.'
At CNEC Christian College in Kwai Tsing, where the number of classes will swell to 33 in September from the current 31, a covered play area is being converted into three makeshift classrooms by introducing soundproof partitions.
A one-off grant from the bureau for renovations to ease the classroom shortage is far from sufficient, says principal Ngai Shu-chiu. 'We received a grant of around HK$100,000 two years ago, but the partitions cost HK$600,000.'
The wide-ranging senior secondary curriculum has exacerbated the shortage, Ngai says.
In the past when classes were divided into science and arts streams, they needed only five classrooms if there were five classes in a form.
The new system doesn't segregate students into different streams. They may also schedule two to three elective courses besides the four compulsory subjects.
As a result, Ngai says, they need extra classrooms for split classes and have requisitioned a host of special rooms such as the student activity centre and geography room for use as classrooms.
Po Leung Kuk No1 W.H. Cheung College in Wong Tai Sin, however, is taking the opportunity to expand the school complex: it plans to build a new teaching block to accommodate the increase in students.
Principal Chau Chor-shing has launched a major fund-raising drive to help pay for the construction of the HK$12.5 million building.
'Any parent or alumnus who donates HK$100,000 can have a classroom named after him. Anyone who donates HK$3,000 or above can get their names inscribed on the plaque to be erected in the new teaching block. We have raised HK$1 million so far.'
Meanwhile, the bureau has identified three vacant school buildings that secondary schools may use to cope with overcrowding.
Chan Hon-ling, principal of Kiangsu-Chekiang College in Sha Tin, says the school has applied to use seven classrooms in a vacated primary school nearby.
'We have only 25 rooms. And with students in 29 classes now, four are floating classes,' Chan said. 'Students in a floating class have to endure a lot of inconvenience as they do not have a permanent classroom.'
And when the student population hits its peak in September, Chan says 31 classes will have to fit into the space.
An Education Bureau spokeswoman says teaching space need not be confined to traditional classrooms. The bureau has already allocated grants to allow secondary schools to carry out renovations to create additional teaching space.
'An additional subsidy of not more than HK$300,000 was also provided to schools with genuine needs for alteration works on application,' she says.
'Schools should use the available resources flexibly to create more teaching space to support implementation of the senior secondary curriculum. Flexible time-tabling should be adopted to provide students with reasonable choices of subjects and diversified learning experiences.'
