St Paul's Co-educational College, one of Hong Kong's elite schools, has cut student-to-teacher ratios by a third since it joined the Direct Subsidy Scheme two years ago.
New principal Dr Anissa Chan Wong Lai-kuen has pledged to ensure even fewer students per teacher as part of her plans to broaden and enhance the curriculum.
Dr Chan, who took over the headship in September, last week unveiled a four-pronged curriculum plan for the Mid-Levels school.
It involves stepping up teaching of Chinese through Putonghua, launching extension programmes for outstanding students in maths, science and the humanities, broadening arts education, and devising a new leadership and community service programme.
Dr Chan said the student to teacher ratio had fallen from 20:1 to 14:1 since 2002, with new teachers and assistants taken on as the first three year groups were admitted at DSS funding levels. Average class sizes had fallen from 40 to 32.
The school was now starting to split classes into sets in some subjects and introduce a wider range of options in Form Six, resulting in even smaller classes.