Vacant Hong Kong campuses attract ‘very positive’ response from international schools
- Eligible applicants will have to submit detailed proposals for sites in North Point and Kowloon Tong
- Schools can start operating at sites around 2027-28 academic year or following one
The English Schools Foundation (ESF), the city’s largest international school group, confirmed it was eyeing the larger site in Kowloon Tong. The other site is in North Point.
The bureau told the Post it received a “very positive” response after it informed international school operators in December that the two sites were available.
It was not immediately clear which international school operator had expressed an interest in the North Point site.
The operators can run both primary and secondary schools on the sites. Applications closed on February 21.
According to the bureau, the schools can start operating at the sites from around the 2027-28 academic year or the following one, depending on the type of tenancy, and successful operators can either renovate or rebuild the premises with consent.
The Kowloon Tong site was used by ESF Kowloon Junior School until 2013, when the group returned the run-down premises to the government and moved the school to a campus in Ho Man Tin.
The North Point site used to be the campus for the Hongkong Japanese School’s junior secondary section.
Those eligible have to submit detailed proposals within about three months, and the successful operators will be announced during next year’s school allocation exercise.
The bureau said earlier that it would consider factors such as the operators’ organisational structure, management, financial footing, track record and expertise.
It would also evaluate the school proposal, including measures to meet the needs of pupils, especially those arriving in Hong Kong from elsewhere.
A spokesman for the ESF said the group had expressed an interest in the Kowloon Tong site but could not disclose further details.
The foundation has five kindergartens, nine primary schools, five secondary schools and three with both primary and secondary sections.
The operator that takes over the 31,215 sq ft site in North Point is expected to offer no fewer than 340 school places, while the 40,000 sq ft site in Kowloon Tong is for a minimum of 480 places.
At least 70 per cent of the school places should be for non-local students.
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The school operators must offer a non-local curriculum, but not a mainland Chinese one.
“It has been the Hong Kong government’s commitment to developing a vibrant international school sector in meeting the demand for school places mainly from overseas families living in Hong Kong and families coming to Hong Kong for work or investment,” the bureau said in an earlier document.
A study commissioned by the bureau found that nearly 30 per cent of the city’s 68 international and private schools expected non-local student applications to drop by 13 per cent annually over the next five years.
Only 10 per cent expected the intake to rise by about two-fifths annually. The rest did not provide the related information.
