GETTING admission into primary school for four-and five-year-olds can be a difficult process. Nervous parents and their children do the rounds of schools, attending interview after interview, until miraculously, a match is achieved between the child, the parents' desires and expectations, and the school.
Schools have different policies on testing the under-fives, which in many countries has become a highly controversial issue.
Some schools have no test at all, but ''we take the children as they come'', said Vivienne Steer, headmistress of Kellet School in Pokfulam. The school's reputation is undented for that.
Others, such as the French International School, say quite clearly from the outset that they are looking for ''the brightest children''.
The English Schools Foundation and most international schools say they are testing only the children's ability to follow English language instruction. Whether they admit it or not however, there is more to it than that since some children with English as their mother tongue fail to get places.
Even parents of children who have successfully won places at the most selective schools are sceptical about the admissions interview. Few believe they are really fair or even an accurate measure of anything but the child's mood at that time of day.