Hong Kong’s public primary, secondary schools add 11 classes for academic year, with uptick ‘linked to arrival of mainland Chinese talent’

Hong Kong’s public primary and secondary schools have added 11 classes for the new academic year, with sector leaders attributing the higher-than-expected figure to mainland Chinese workers and their children arriving through talent schemes.

The Education Bureau on Friday said four Primary One and seven Form One classes had been added to those approved earlier, following an annual headcount exercise conducted at the start of the school year in mid-September. Authorities had already cut more than 80 Primary One classes for government and aided schools in March, but an adjustment to Form One in May was not yet revealed.

Polly Chan Suk-yee, a primary school principal and vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association, said the new classes were linked to “external circumstances”, stressing that the shrinking student population was a structural issue that could hardly be offset by the inflow of new arrivals.

“There are mainland students who moved to Hong Kong with their families, who were admitted under the various talent schemes, and some are children of returning migrants,” she said.

The full reopening of the border with the mainland earlier in the year also resulted in the return of cross-border pupils, she added.

“But there are still a lot of uncertainties because we are not sure if that uptick will happen next year too ... so the strong sense of crisis for class-cutting and school closure remains.”

Chan said primary schools could focus on enhancing teaching and learning quality, as well as strengthening ties with kindergartens to improve enrolment amid the uncertainties.