International school ‘facing crisis’ in catering to Hong Kong’s expanding French community

The French International School has applied to open a new campus at a government site in Kowloon as it nears a crisis point in its efforts to provide enough places for the fast-growing French community in Hong Kong.

The number of French nationals aged under six on consulate records has hit 1,500, half as much again as the capacity of the school's French primary section, says principal Christian Soulard.

"We are facing a crisis," he says. "The growth of the French population is just a matter of fact, which means we're having this problem of the increase of the number of students."

He says the school, the only French school in Hong Kong, has applied for one of five sites put forward by the government in March for international school development, although he declined to identify which one.

The sites include two empty schools: in the Ap Lei Chau Estate and on Ma Chung Road, Tai Po; and three greenfield sites, two in Tseung Kwan O and one near Tai Po's Science Park.

Soulard says the school needs a campus on the Kowloon peninsula because some 30 per cent of the community's population live in the New Territories.

Its current campuses - three primary schools in Chai Wan, Sheung Wan and Jardine's Lookout and a secondary school in Happy Valley - are all on Hong Kong Island. Together they cater for 2,600 pupils. It also runs two kindergartens.