Hong Kong school with permanently absent pupils investigated

Hong Kong police are investigating a primary school in Tuen Mun accused of having exaggerated its number of pupils in order to avoid a funding cut.

The school’s teachers and the Professional Teachers’ Union (PTU) complained to the Education Bureau that 21 pupils at the government-subsidised Hing Tak School were absent for up to two years, but remained on the student roster.

According to a source, the bureau referred the case to the police, who confirmed they were investigating a suspected case of using a false instrument.

If Hong Kong’s students are too focused on future income, are the adults to blame?

But the school principal rejected the idea that numbers were inflated so the school could get more funding from the government and avoid potential closure, saying many absent pupils were cross-border children who were on official leave for family reasons.

Cross-border children are those born in Hong Kong to mainland parents between 2001 and 2012 – and therefore eligible for permanent residency – before the government banned local hospitals from taking in mainland women to give birth.

School principal Chan Cheung-ping said parents of the pupils in question had submitted sick leave application forms.

Hong Kong’s ‘youth problem’ is really the failure of its test-focused education system

“According to the Education Bureau, if pupils did apply for leave, we cannot just ask them to leave the school,” she said at a tearful press conference on Tuesday.