Hong Kong parents say competition for school places still tough, despite overall success rate reaching 11-year high
- Number of those applying for spots drops amid declining birth rate and emigration
- Despite results being sent out in an email, some parents still went to schools to see child’s name on list
Some Hong Kong parents who received allocation results on Monday said competition for elite campuses in the city remained keen, despite the overall success rate of children securing a place at their preferred primary school hitting an 11-year high.
A total of 22,892 children got their first choice in the Primary One places allocation exercise in a year when there were as many as eight pupils competing for one spot in some instances. The overall success rate among the 48,080 students was 47.6 per cent.
Among the discretionary places offered this year, 13,048 children, who have siblings studying or parents working at their preferred school, were automatically enrolled.
The remaining 9,844 students were admitted under a “points system”, while around 25,188 children who did not get into the schools they wanted can join the centralised allocation process in January, with the results announced in June.
More points will be given to firstborn children, those with the same religious affiliation as schools, or if a child’s parents attended the same school. In the event multiple children fulfil the criteria, there will be a draw to decide who gets the place.
The number of students applying for Primary One admission dropped by about 1,600 this year, and that figure is expected to fall in the coming years, with the downward trend putting the future of some schools in doubt.
Despite all the results being published online on Monday morning, several parents insisted on turning up at around 9am at La Salle Primary School in Kowloon Tong, one of the city’s top boys’ schools, to see their child’s name on the list – in black and white.
A woman who only gave her name as Yip said she was happy to know her son had secured a place at the same school her husband attended, given that the 700 applicants was 100 more than last year.
She said she had paid out HK$10,000 a month for extracurricular activities, so her son was ready for the interviews for the two to three private and direct subsidised schools on her wish list.
Rate of Hong Kong pupils getting into a top-list school hits 5-year high
A father, surnamed Sum, an alumnus of the boys’ school, said he was excited to know the result, as he hoped his son would follow in his footsteps.
“I do not have any plans to emigrate right now as I want my boy to learn more Chinese, while English is easy to pick up,” he said.
Polly Chan Shuk-yee, principal of Yaumati Catholic Primary School (Hoi Wang Road), another elite school in the city, said they received 330 applications with more than four students fighting for one place.
But she attributed a 10 per cent year-on-year decrease in applications to the low birth rate and a wave of emigration.
She said the children on the waiting list after the first round offer could be more optimistic than in the past, as there was greater mobility of students amid a wave of emigration.
“There may be a few places left in Primary One as some will forfeit their spots,” Chan said, adding more pupils had emigrated in the last academic year.
