But moves are labelled as not enough, with children being used as chess pieces
Education chiefs have made some concessions to parents in three Kowloon districts who are angered that their children have been blocked from applying to prestige schools on Hong Kong Island.
But the parents say the concessions do not go far enough and claim their children are being treated as 'chess pieces'.
The row broke out last week when the Education and Manpower Bureau disclosed that children in Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok, who had previously been able to seek places in schools in Wan Chai, would no longer be able to do so.
Sought after English-medium schools such as Queen's College are located in the Wan Chai school net.
The bureau agreed at a meeting with parents yesterday to give them more time to make a choice of school and more flexibility in registering their addresses. But it refused to back down on the decision to exclude them from the Wan Chai net.
Tang Kai-ming, spokesman for an alliance of parent representatives from 19 schools in the three Kowloon areas, said Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower Bernadette Linn Hon-ho had agreed that affected parents could indicate their choices of schools on May 19 instead of May 8.