Hong Kong public schools struggle to get funding for lifts
Poll by education lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen shows 40 out of 48 institutions had applied but failed to obtain government grant
As ambulance workers struggled to carry a sick pupil six floors down a narrow flight of 60-year-old stairs, principal Roger Wong Chung-fu wished for the umpteenth time that his application for a lift had been granted.
But Hui Chung Sing Memorial School, which has waited 10 years for the facility, is not the only institution in the queue. A total of 40 public schools, some with disabled pupils enrolled, have been denied a lift after submitting applications to the Education Bureau.
Of these, 17 schools were rejected more than five times, according to a survey carried out by education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen.
In September, Ip sent questionnaires to 119 public schools operating without a lift, according to a list published by the bureau in 2012. Of the 48 schools that replied, 40 had made an application but failed to obtain a grant from the government.
Four of these schools had admitted between one and nine disabled pupils for the 2016/17 year.
