ESF considers corporate scheme for school places
Faced with financial losses due to subsidy cuts, foundation may launch scheme where firms could reserve places for employees' children
The English Schools Foundation (ESF) may launch a corporate nomination rights scheme to make up for its financial losses as the government gradually cuts its subsidy.
From 2016, the foundation's long-frozen HK$283 million annual subsidy, or subvention, will be phased out year by year, over 13 years, until 2028-29.
In announcing the news yesterday, ESF chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing said it had no choice but to accept the Education Bureau's decision.
Chief executive Heather Du Quesnay said: "We did what we could and got the best arrangement we could for parents and students."
She said a few companies had indicated interest in purchasing nomination rights to reserve school places, but no final decision had been made.
The ESF introduced a similar scheme on a limited scale last year, allowing local and foreign parents to pay a non-refundable fee of HK$500,000 to reserve a place for their child, who would be given priority placement should they meet admission requirements.