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Agnes Lam

Ordered to close over low enrolments, institution fights for survival

A primary school struggling for survival needs at least HK$1 million if the Education and Manpower Bureau approves a plan for it to run privately funded Primary One classes.

Leung Kee-cheong - headmaster of the Fresh Fish Traders' School in Tai Kok  Tsui, which has been ordered to shut for a second time - said it cost about HK$600,000 to operate one Primary One class.

'We still have HK$900,000 left from private donations. The bureau requires schools to have money ready for three years as a guarantee, which means we need to have about HK$1.8 million in order to be qualified to run Primary One classes, and we are HK$1 million short,' he said.

The 384-pupil school has received only 10 applications for admission to its Primary One class, well below the minimum of 23 it needs to stay open. It is one of 13 primary schools the bureau has ordered to stop new admissions from September.

The school, which would have to close in 2010 under the government's order, has submitted two proposals to the bureau.

'We ask the government to let us admit students until September to meet the required quota or let us run our Primary One classes with private donations,' Mr Leung said.

In 2004, the school faced a similar problem, but got a stay of execution by raising HK$900,000.

Mr Leung said the Fish Trade Association  was having financial difficulties because of the malachite-green food scare.

The 38-year-old school provides free tutorial services to help new arrivals learn English, and also gives out donated bread, shampoo and shoes to the children's families.

Former pupil Ricky Wong Kwong-yiu, who went to the school in the 1970s and is now executive director of Wheelock Properties, said: 'There are seven siblings in my family and we all spent our childhood at Fresh Fish Traders' School, which offered free education to disadvantaged children. Knowledge has changed my life and I know the school is helping many other children with complicated backgrounds.' Chan Tak-yan, another graduate of the school who is now a private doctor in his 40s, vowed to help the institution that helped change his life.

'My grandpa used to sell fish. I was lucky that I could receive free education at the school, and later I finished my medical studies and could become a doctor,' he said. 'I hope children who are in need of help could be as lucky as I am.'

Jachilia Chiang Oi-ching, manager of a shoe company in San Po Kong, has donated hundreds of pairs of new shoes to the schoolchildren.

'I felt very depressed when I heard the news that the school is facing closure again. The school is doing so well and helping so many disadvantaged children in society. I really don't understand why the government wants to close it down. It is all very upsetting,' she said.

The company made its first donation to the school in January 2005, passing on more than 100 pairs of new shoes.

'Those shoes were spare stock. I found it quite wasteful to discard them and I learned about the school through a friend, so I called up the school and asked Mr Leung if he was interested. He was very happy and said yes right away,' she said.

'I will definitely contact the school again when I have other things to donate ... this is a school that we should all support and not force to close again.'

In the book

Number of children in the school  384

Number of applications for Primary One in September  10



Primary school needs HK$1 million in battle with bureau to stay open