Big tutorial schools have poured tens of millions of dollars into preparing for the new senior secondary curriculum, which has created a new battlefield in the cram school market.
Tutorial colleges are big business in the city, some even hiring pop stars for promotion. But the battle for custom has come earlier and more intensely this year with the advent of the new curriculum, which includes a new liberal studies course among other additions and changes.
The money is also being used to hire more teachers and alter the way courses are structured.
And it is not just because parents are worried by the demands of the new curriculum that more students are likely to be heading to extra tutorials. The total number of students in senior secondary - meaning Form Four and above - may jump from more than 152,200 in this academic year to 241,800 in 2011-12, according to the Education Bureau.
The new curriculum applies to Form Four in September, Form Five in 2010-11 and Form Six in 2011-12, the first academic year when the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination will be in place.
The estimate is derived from the number of Form Three students, which is 80,600.