Principals call for more funds to ease cross-border load
Schools in northern areas face costs of hiring extra teachers, offering more classes, heads say
The government should provide more financial support to schools admitting cross-border students, and should also allow them to have smaller classes when the number of cross-border students drops drastically in future, principals said yesterday.
They asked the government to provide an annual subsidy of at least HK$240,000 for schools to provide special care for cross-border children, such as hiring extra staff and helping them adjust to Hong Kong culture.
The principals were responding after a meeting with education authorities on the Education Bureau's new scheme to require public schools in Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, North District and Tai Po to reserve at least two places in every Primary One class - a minimum of 900 places for cross-border pupils - in the next school year.
Representatives from the four districts' primary schools said they were also worried about what would happen after the end of the influx of cross-border pupils, expected to come about in 2018. In that year, the last group of children born in Hong Kong to mainland parents before Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying ordered a "zero quota" of bookings from mainland parents at all hospitals will reach school age.
Some schools that had opened more classes might have to close them and lay off extra teachers they had hired because there were not enough pupils, the principals said.
They hoped the government would allow them to keep the extra classes by reducing minimum class sizes. The minimum number of pupils for a small-size class is now 25.