Parents at ousted kindergarten reject offer of places at replacement

Parents of pupils at a Tin Shui Wai kindergarten that lost its campus to a rival have dismissed a government offer to help get their children places at other preschools, saying they want to stick with their original choice.

Topkids International Preschool announced a week ago that it had lost its Sherwood Court, Kingswood Villas campus after rival Zenith International Education Foundation outbid it.

"We chose Topkids in the first place for our kids because we have confidence in the school's teaching quality and its mission," said Au Chi-hang, a member of a parents' concern group.

"Now the situation is like the engineering faculty at a university being closed and students affected being told that it wouldn't make any difference if they switched to other majors," Au said on RTHK's City Forum. "Is this the right attitude that a government should have?"

Zenith, which also runs the only other kindergarten at Kingswood Villas, has offered Topkids parents a slight reduction in school fees and an 85 per cent discount on miscellaneous fees, which are usually much higher at Zenith than at Topkids. Au said the government was also helping parents find places with Zenith.

But Au said parents should have more than one choice of kindergarten operator and said there should be a transitional period of at least a year before Topkids closed. He repeated a demand that Topkids be allowed to move into an empty school nearby, a suggestion the government has rejected because the site is earmarked for a primary school.