10,000 expected to join rally for smaller classes

Up to 10,000 teachers, parents and pupils from New Territories East are expected to attend a rally in Sha Tin on Sunday to press for smaller classes.

Lam Seung-wan, the chairman of the Aided Primary School Heads Association, an organiser of the protest, said there was no excuse for the government to delay the implementation of smaller classes, given the city's falling birth rate.

'We expect about 10,000 parents, students, teachers and principals to turn up,' he said.

The rally is being jointly organised by the association, the Professional Teachers' Union and the Subsidised Primary Schools Council. The president of the teachers' union, legislator Cheung Man-kwong, said members of the union would meet Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung to discuss the introduction of smaller classes after the rally.

He said rallies might be held in four other districts - Hong Kong, Kowloon East and West and New Territories West.

'We hope to see a breakthrough in the issue,' Mr Cheung said.