International school sites still needed

My colleagues and I at the Harbour School appreciate the Education Bureau's efforts to address the shortage of international school placements in Hong Kong through the recent allocation exercise of four redundant school sites.

We were among the dozens of organisations that bid for one or more of these sites.

Our school was selected for the shortlist for the Stanley site that was ultimately awarded to the International Montessori School.

Although these efforts by the bureau are to be applauded, they are not sufficient to meet the burgeoning need for more seats in schools that serve Hong Kong's international community. The bureau has itself admitted this.

Late last year Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim, when speaking to the Legislative Council, projected that the city will face a shortage of 4,200 international primary school places by 2016 despite the planned expansion in the next five years.

Without sufficient capacity for students at international schools, as has been widely reported in the press and publicly noted by the British and American chambers of commerce among others, we may see the international business community shun Hong Kong as a point of relocation. Such an outcome would, of course, hurt all citizens of Hong Kong, not just the parents of international school students.