‘No guarantee’ ESF fees will remain among lowest of Hong Kong international schools, chairman says
There is no guarantee that English Schools Foundation tuition fees will remain among the lowest charged by Hong Kong’s international schools in the future, the body’s new chairman Abraham Razack said.
There is no guarantee that English Schools Foundation tuition fees will remain among the lowest charged by Hong Kong’s international schools in the future, the body’s new chairman Abraham Razack said today.
Razack, a real estate sector lawmaker, said however that fee rises would not be so substantial that costs would reach the level of some of the most expensive international schools in the city and that the foundation would continue to serve middle-class parents.
He said parents might refer to the fees at Renaissance College in Ma On Shan and Discovery College in Discovery Bay – two private schools under ESF’s affiliated company – for a guide to how much the foundation might charge next year, when a 13-year phase-out of a HK$283 million annual government subsidy begins.
That means fees next year might reach HK$100,000 a year for new pupils entering Primary One – a 27 per cent increase from this year. Current ESF pupils will not be affected by the subsidy removal.
Even after the rise, ESF’s fees would still remain the lowest among international schools, but Razack, who will serve three years at the foundation, said he could not promise this would continue to be the case.
“The [fee] increase will be within the ability of parents to pay,” he said. “And secondly, parents will have to decide the quality of education they would like to maintain.”
He said costs would keep increasing, as 80 per cent of ESF’s revenue would go to teachers’ salaries, which would rise every year. The foundation would also need money to renovate some ageing school buildings. One such project cost HK$100 million, he said.
“But bear in mind that whatever we do, there will be plenty of consultations and there will be plenty of meetings with stakeholders,” he said.
The ESF board yesterday approved an 18-month pilot scheme to combine three neighbouring Ho Man Tin schools – King George V School (KGV), Kowloon Junior School (KJS) and Jockey Club Sarah Roe School – into one campus.
Under the scheme, which will start in August, the principal of KGV will become head of the new campus and the ESF will appoint new heads for the secondary KGV and primary KJS. The principal of Sarah Roe, which caters for pupils aged five to 19 with special educational needs, will remain unchanged.
Each school will retain its own identity but pupils will be able to share school facilities and teachers will work together to design a curriculum that allows for student movement between them. Teachers may also teach in one another’s schools.