Education minister Michael Suen Ming-yeung said yesterday that the government would consider extending a grace period, currently five years, for teachers threatened with redundancy by the city's class-reduction scheme. Facing a lukewarm response from schools to the voluntary scheme, Suen said he would also soon roll out more measures to give schools more 'flexibility' in manpower, to keep experienced teachers and maintain staff morale.
With student numbers plummeting, thanks to a declining birth rate, the scheme, announced in March, is intended to cut the number of classes at participating schools from five to four. Students bound for the fifth class in schools that are top-banded - considered best - can be assigned to schools that have difficulty in attaining the minimum enrolment threshold of 61 students.
As an incentive for joining the scheme, a school is currently to be given extra funding of HK$250,000 a year, and surplus teachers will not be sacked during the grace period.
Suen made the comments after meeting more than 300 secondary school principals yesterday.
'The main point is not to get rid of teachers,' he said. 'Early retirement ... or [letting people go] through natural loss cannot be done in certain schools, where most teachers are young and far from retirement age.' He added that experienced teachers were difficult to replace. 'We want to retain them within the system.'
He said the Education Bureau would discuss with sponsoring bodies the feasibility of merging schools.
'We will also consider extending the grace period. We won't divulge details of [further incentives for joining the voluntary scheme] as we still need to discuss the nitty-gritty of plans with the stakeholders.'
