It seems like no time at all since principal Leung Kee-cheong was grabbing headlines over his fight to save Fresh Fish Traders' School in Tai Kok Tsui, West Kowloon.
But now, after a three-year respite, the school's future is once again in doubt after it failed to attract the minimum 23 students required for a Primary One class.
'The situation is tragic, laughable and pitiful,' Mr Leung said. 'The Education and Manpower Bureau only cares about the numbers when it comes to closing schools. It doesn't care about quality.
'We passed a quality inspection in 2004 and we were told that would be valid for four years. But just three years later, we are facing closure once more.'
When it was issued with a similar order in 2003, parents and teachers ran a high-profile campaign to save the school. After running self-financed Primary One classes for a year and passing a quality inspection, normal admissions resumed in 2004.
Fresh Fish Traders' was one of 13 primary schools which were last week ordered to freeze Primary One admissions come September, as they had failed to secure the minimum intake in the make-or-break allocations mechanism.
The schools now face the option of undergoing a quality inspection, switching to private funding, joining the direct subsidy scheme, merging or closing their doors four years from now.
