Hong Kong schools lose 81 Primary One classes as wave of emigration saps student population

At least 81 Primary One classes at Hong Kong public schools have been cut this academic year after a wave of emigration sapped the city’s student population, according to new official figures.

A representative of local principals said he expected the drop could be even bigger in the next school year, predicting that students living in mainland China who currently attended online classes at Hong Kong schools would choose to quit if the border remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Education Bureau’s latest census of the city’s student population, released on Thursday, showed there were 15 fewer Primary One classes in government-run and subsidised schools in September than the authorities originally approved in March.

Figures published previously in a report titled “Primary School Profiles 2021” showed there were already 66 fewer classes approved then for the city’s more than 450 public primary schools than there were the year before.

The profile, compiled by the Committee on Home-School Co-operation months before the start of the academic year, showed 54 schools were each projected to cut a single Primary One class, while another six schools were expected to cut two.

With each class typically having about 25 pupils, the combined cuts amounted to some 2,000 Primary One spots being lost this year.

The bureau on Thursday said there were also eight fewer Secondary One classes in September than were approved in March. Data for the number of approved classes in public secondary schools in March was not immediately available.

A statement from the bureau noted that such a fluctuation “often reflects the overall changes in the population of school-aged students and its mobility”, which includes emigration and people leaving the public system for private options.