ESF school group, 3 other foreign educational institutions failed to enrol enough non-local students during pandemic, Hong Kong education authority says
- Education Bureau says it will remind schools to observe student mix requirements or face consequences
- Amid pandemic some non-local students might have moved back home with their families, bureau says
Hong Kong’s largest international schools group and three other foreign education institutions failed to admit the required number of non-local students for two consecutive years as the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the city, according to authorities.
The Education Bureau said it would tell schools to meet the requirement on the make-up of their student bodies, warning it could terminate or refuse to renew their service agreements and take back their locations.
The bureau raised the required proportion of non-local students enrolled in international schools subject to a service agreement with the government to an average of 70 per cent in 2009, up from 50 per cent. The percentage was temporarily relaxed in recent years for several newly established international schools because of the pandemic.
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“Amid the Covid-19 epidemic, some non-local students might move back to their hometowns with their families, resulting in a higher than usual dropout rate among non-local students,” the bureau said in reply to a question from lawmakers on Thursday.
Hong Kong is home to 54 international schools, including one that caters to students with special needs. In the current academic year, the schools, excluding the special needs one, provided 46,253 places and admitted 40,626 students.
Non-local students accounted for about 66 per cent of pupils at international schools, while the rest were locals.
The government said that in the current term, four of 16 international schools subjected to a service agreement failed to meet the threshold for non-local students, which ranged from 50 to 98 per cent.
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“The percentages of non-local students in their total student population ranged from 49 per cent to 71 per cent,” the bureau said.
Of the four international schools, three had failed to meet the requirement for two consecutive years.
The government also said the English Schools Foundation (ESF), the largest international school group in Hong Kong with 22 schools, failed to meet its 70 per cent requirement for two years.
“In the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, non-local students accounted for 67 per cent and 65 per cent of ESF’s student population, respectively,” it said.
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The bureau said it would write to the schools concerned, reminding them to comply with the requirement and urging them to put appropriate measures in place to improve the situation.
It warned there could be consequences for non-compliance.
“The Education Bureau will take follow-up actions, including exercising the right to terminate or refuse to renew the service agreement and taking back the school premises and sites allocated.
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But the bureau also said various international schools, consulates and chambers of commerce had stressed the difficulties schools encountered during to the pandemic.
“It is of utmost importance to provide sufficient school places for non-local students after the epidemic subsided,” it added.
The Post has contacted the ESF for comment.
