Competition is fierce for Hong Kong’s secondary school places as ‘cross-border’ kids enter race
The first phase of applications has started with 3,100 more pupils looking for a spot than last year
Competition for a seat at Hong Kong’s public secondary schools has spiked for the coming academic year, with the first wave of Hong Kong-born mainland children set to graduate from primary school in the summer.
A total of 3,100 more pupils are entering the race for the school year starting in September compared with 2017, according to the Education Bureau. The first phase of school applications started on Tuesday.
The bureau will increase the overall number of school places, but just 283 spots will be added at schools using English as the teaching language. Such schools are traditionally more popular than Chinese ones, meaning that competition will become even fiercer.
The rise in student numbers signals a reverse in the decade-long decline in the number of Hong Kong’s Secondary One pupils, or those in the first grade of the six-year curriculum.
Cross-border pupils see less intense Hong Kong primary school competition near mainland China
With Hong Kong’s birth rate falling to a low of 0.9 births per woman in 2003 from 2.05 in 1980, the number of Secondary One students dropped 36 per cent to 54,479 in 2016 from 85,745 in 2006.