English-medium schools have been inundated with last-minute applications for Form One places, after the first secondary school allocations under the government's revised medium-of-instruction policy were announced yesterday.
As scores of Chinese-medium schools prepare to switch over to teaching in English or offer more English-medium classes in September, 70 per cent of Primary Six students gained a discretionary place or their first choice of school through central allocation in the admissions process - up five percentage points on last year.
Students gaining places through both stages of the admissions process picked up admission slips yesterday. In the discretionary round, 62 per cent won their first choice, while in central allocation, 61 per cent did so.
The Education Bureau hailed the admission results as representing a new high in student satisfaction, despite a fall of nearly 10 per cent in the number of students applying for Form One places this year to 61,309 due to a demographic dip.
'The overall satisfaction rate has reached a high of 89 per cent for students who were allocated discretionary places and the first three choices through central allocation,' a spokesman said. 'If only the number of students allocated discretionary places and first choices through central allocation are counted, the satisfaction rate is still 75 per cent.'
But many English-medium schools saw the number of applications for leftover places after the results were released increase or remain the same this year despite there being fewer students in the system.
Chin Chi-kwan, vice-principal of PLK Celine Ho Yam Tong College in Kowloon, which will switch to teaching in English in September, said: 'We have had an increase of 30 to 40 per cent in the number of people applying to the school at the end of the Form One allocation process compared to last year.'