Revealed: 40 Hong Kong kindergartens allowed to set application fees up to 90 times official ceiling

The problem of some kindergartens charging excessively high application fees has prompted an official investigation by the Ombudsman after the Education Bureau gave around 40 schools the green light for such charges last year.

Ombudsman Connie Lau Yin-hing said she was “very concerned” about the effectiveness of the bureau’s monitoring of the issue, as it had allowed the kindergartens to ask for more than the HK$40 ceiling set by the government. It’s not clear why the schools are charging much higher fees, or on what criteria the bureau has approved such cases.

After the investigation was announced on Thursday, the bureau said cases were evaluated on whether they satisfied the user-pays principle, based on the idea of consumers paying the full cost of the services they get.

Extreme cases among the 40 mostly international schools included the German Swiss International School, which charged HK$3,700 – about 90 times above the permitted level. Singapore International School charged HK$3,000 for the academic year 2015/16. English Schools Foundation (ESF) kindergartens said they charged HK$500.

The move by the Ombudsman came after public criticism that the bureau was lax in its approval mechanism.

“This would be especially unfair if parents have paid unreasonably high application fees,” Lau said. Once application fees had been paid, kindergartens would not refund them whether or not the children were eventually admitted, she said.