Unfortunately, the subvention for a system that originally catered for the children of expatriate civil servants was unsustainable under the government’s policy of not subsidising schools that run a mainly non-local curriculum. Demand for ESF places, however, still exceeds supply. That suggests they remain affordable for many, or that many local parents dissatisfied with the government education system are willing to make sacrifices for an international education in English.

Such fees are plainly not easily affordable to many middle-class families. Sadly there is little debate, in the context of Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an international city, about the case for supporting education for non-Chinese-speaking children of resident families or local families who choose to educate their children in English. It is not the black-and-white issue that it is painted.

The government contributes much more per pupil to schools in the Direct Subsidy Scheme, which provides a more affordable English language education for local parents. It remains arguable that it could have been the foundation of a fairer and more sensible system to make the ESF more accessible to local families while giving DSS schools more curriculum freedom to compete. Unless it is addressed, the inequity will do nothing to reduce the education gap between rich and poor families or improve social mobility.