Parents rally in bid to save primary school
MORE than 1,000 parents are fighting for the survival of an Aberdeen primary school scheduled to close by 1997 under a redevelopment plan.
Their children will be forced to transfer to another school if the Education Department does not approve the building of a new campus for Shek Pai Wan St Peter's School.
The 27-year-old primary school has to shut by August 1997, because Shek Pai Wan Estate is to be demolished for redevelopment.
The school has about 1,700 students at present. About 1,200 primary two to five students will be affected by the redevelopment plan.
More than 1,000 parents' signatures have been collected to petition the Education Department to re-locate the school to a new campus.
The Housing Department has reserved a site for the building of a school in Tin Wan nearby, but it is up to the Education Department to decide whether there is a need for a new school in the Southern District and which sponsoring body would run the new school, if there was enough demand.
Principal of Shek Pai Wan St Peter's School, Joseph Chan, said the school had applied for a new campus about two years ago.
But he said they were told this month there were insufficient reasons to construct a new school, as there were enough vacancies at other schools in the district to absorb all the students who would be affected.
'Many parents want their children to continue studying at this school. The closing time is sensitive,' Mr Chan said.
'We will have a new government by July 1997 and the parents are worrying if the new authority can make a satisfactory arrangement.' Unlike some other schools in the district which have dropping student enrolment and class numbers, Mr Chan said his school had maintained 24 classes each for morning and afternoon sessions over the past 27 years.
Senior Education Officer of the Southern District, Lo Ying-choi, denied a decision had been reached on the school's application for a new campus.
