Hong Kong parents still paying kindergarten fees for schools under free scheme
Preschools say they have to cover costs and parents had been informed
About 30 out of 500 Hong Kong kindergartens offering half-day programmes are still charging fees despite being part of a recently implemented free school scheme.
In eight of these kindergartens, parents are forking out HK$4,000 or more a year for their children’s courses. Two schools are even asking for higher fees than the previous year.
The kindergartens are part of a scheme announced by then chief executive Leung Chun-ying in his policy address in January last year. The plan provides kindergartens with annual subsidies of HK$33,190 per pupil for half-day classes, and HK$43,150 to HK$53,100 for full-day courses. A total of about 740 schools are now part of the scheme.
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Under the policy, all kindergartens operating on private sites will also receive subsidies equivalent to half the market rent. Before this, parents only received a voucher of HK$23,230 per child to cover fees.
The scheme – which would increase the government’s budget for kindergartens by more than 60 per cent to HK$6.7 billion – was for kindergartens to provide free and high quality half-day services.
But tuition fees released by the Education Bureau last week showed that about 30 kindergartens offering half-day courses were still charging parents, with at least eight asking for fees starting from HK$4,000.
Parents with children at Cannan Kindergarten on Waterloo Road in Kowloon City have to fork out HK$9,473 a year.
Meanwhile, Po Leung Kuk Eleanor Kwok Law Kwai Chun Kindergarten in Yuen Long, which did not charge pupils tuition fees last year, is now asking for HK$1,680 a year.