Hong Kong schools cut more than 40 Form One classes amid student population drop, renewing calls to open enrolment to pupils in mainland China, Southeast Asian countries

Hong Kong schools were forced to cut more than 40 Form One classes this academic year, a 20 per cent increase compared with the previous one, due to a shrinking student population, renewing calls to open enrolment to pupils in mainland China and Southeast Asian countries.

According to a report published on Tuesday by the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, 46 Form One classes at secondary schools were axed in the 2022-23 academic year, compared with 38 in the previous year.

Twelve additional classes were added this year for reasons such as a higher number of students in some areas or a school’s growing popularity.

The net decrease in the number of Form One classes this year is 34.

Form One students this year were born in 2010, when nearly 89,000 births were registered, a record high since 1967. But the student population has decreased in recent years because of an overall drop in the birth rate, an emigration wave, and the absence of mainland students as they could not come to the city because of travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A spokeswoman for the Education Bureau said an estimated 50,600 Primary Six students had joined the secondary school allocation system as of last month, about 100 fewer than the previous year. She added that education authorities would maintain close communication with schools to plan early for any challenges brought by the decline in the number of students.

Tang Fei, a secondary school principal and a lawmaker, said many of the 89,000 students born in 2010 had parents from the mainland who later opted to let their children pursue their studies there instead.