The shortage of international school places has forced a native English-speaking teacher to home school her son for the past two years.
American Jessica Kuwata arrived in Hong Kong with her husband and her then four-year-old son two years ago under the government's native-speaking English teacher (NET) scheme to improve English learning and teaching in local schools.
A primary-school teacher, Kuwata had hoped to put her son in kindergarten so he could socialise with other children, but she was put off by long waiting lists.
She had no luck despite calls to more than 50 international and direct subsidy scheme schools. The Education Bureau provided her with the contact details as a way of helping her to find a solution, she said.
'First we tried Chinese local schools, but they were very pessimistic about their ability to handle our son because none of us had ever lived in a Chinese-speaking country. They said there were lots of kids in the classroom, and teachers could not instruct my son if he couldn't speak Cantonese.'
A school on Lantau Island made Kuwata an offer but withdrew it after realising that the family lives in Tin Shui Wai, outside its catchment area.
An international school kindergarten she approached later had a two- to three-year waiting list, meaning her son would not have been accepted until 2014, at the age of eight.
