Opinion | Illustrious Hong Kong school founded by Jesuits should remain free to all, rich or poor

In 2002 when speculation was rife that the government-funded Wah Yan College in Wan Chai would apply to join the Direct Subsidy Scheme, allowing it to collect its own fees in exchange for more control over the curriculum and admissions, the school was emphatic it had no such plans. Father Alfred Deignan, then regional superior of the Hong Kong mission of the Society of Jesus, which operates the college, said at the time: “We do not want our school to be mainly for the rich. We want our schools to be open to be of service to the poor. This is part of our spirit.”

Five years later, he and other members of the Jesuit Board of Education again dismissed the idea of joining the scheme. “The tendency will be for it to change to be strongly competitive with a strong emphasis on money and competition rather than on whole person and values education,” he wrote in a letter at the time.

Prestigious Hong Kong government-funded school draws ire for considering self-funding switch

Times have changed, however. Earlier this month, the school admitted it is considering the switch, drawing immediate criticism that it was turning its back on the Jesuit vision of championing the rights of the underprivileged.

The issues raised by Wah Yan’s apparent change of heart reflect a perennial dilemma in Hong Kong education. Since the introduction of education reform in 2000, more and more good schools have chosen to forgo some of their government funding in exchange for more autonomy. They complained that the reform measures led to wider disparities in student ability and made it harder for them to maintain the quality of their education.

St Paul’s Co-Educational College and Diocesan Boys’ School gave up their aided status to join the direct subsidy scheme, partly in an attempt to free themselves from the reform measures being imposed on the aided and government schools.