Advertisement
Opinion | Hong Kong’s falling student numbers a ‘golden window’ to embrace smaller class sizes
- The government says it wants to ‘foster a supportive environment for childbearing’, yet at the same time it is closing schools
- Rather than a crisis, the fall in student numbers is an opportunity to have smaller classes and fix the learning gap left by the pandemic
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
7
Remember those tall tales some of us heard growing up of our great-grandparents having to traverse unpaved mountainous roads, fording streams and battling the elements for long distances to get to school? They were barefoot, of course, while carrying their baby sibling on their back.
Sound overdramatic? Sure, but the moral of the story was not to take the gift of access to education for granted. And so my jaw couldn’t help but drop when I read the news of the merger of two secondary schools – one in Tung Chung and the other in the Southern district on Hong Kong Island – because of low enrolment.
Students will commute between Pok Fu Lam and Tung Chung – which are not neighbouring districts, to say the least – every day to complete their secondary education. Granted, they won’t have to make the trip walking barefoot as a bus service will be provided. Even so, it’s still preposterous.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin has described the merger of the schools by Caritas Hong Kong, the schools’ sponsoring body, as a “prophetic vision”. That, too, is preposterous.
Such an arduous commute for students is pitiful for a global city in this day and age. Hong Kong’s drop in student numbers is a perfect opportunity to implement smaller class sizes, but instead the government has decided to close schools.
Before we get to that, let’s address the perception problem the government is creating for itself. On one hand, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han says, “The government has implemented various measures to foster a supportive environment for childbearing and to promote family-friendly measures to provide better support for couples who wish to bear children, but should avoid excessive intervention.” On the other, the government is taking away schools.
Advertisement