More than 100 Hong Kong schools to hold education fair to woo mainland Chinese students, but ‘no priority’ in admissions
- As local enrolments dwindle, schools target students arriving with parents through top talent scheme
- December event will showcase range of schools, with talks on education system and on-site interviews
Principals of Hong Kong schools are keen to woo pupils arriving through a new talent scheme but have vowed they will not receive priority in admissions to ensure fairness to all applicants.
Four major local school councils, representing nearly all of the city’s aided and semi-private schools, are organising an education fair for the first time next month, mainly for students from mainland China.
The Post reported earlier that professionals arriving in Hong Kong under the Top Talent Pass Scheme, launched by the government last December, had brought nearly 19,000 children with them.
“After the border reopening and the launch of the Top Talent Pass Scheme, many students are coming to Hong Kong to apply for local schools,” said Dion Chen, chairman of the Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, one of the co-organisers of the fair.
“They are mainly from the mainland, particularly the Greater Bay Area.”
The bay area refers to Beijing’s initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities into an economic powerhouse.
“The fair is to provide Hong Kong students living on the mainland, their parents and those interested in applying for the talent scheme a thorough understanding of Hong Kong schools,” said Chen, the principal of Ying Wa College.
The fair will also offer talks on the Hong Kong education system, and some schools will hold application interviews. More than 100 primary and secondary schools have confirmed they are taking part so far, with the organisers still accepting more participants.
Hong Kong education fair to target 200,000 students in neighbouring Guangdong
The city’s schools welcomed these arrivals at a time of declining births and enrolments. Education authorities projected earlier that the number of six-year-olds would fall from 57,300 this year to 50,000 in 2029, and the number of 12-year-olds would drop from 71,600 to 60,100.
Since the border reopened earlier this year, Chen’s school has received more than 10 applications during the academic year from mainland students wanting to join different grades, more than in previous years.
Others applying to schools in the city included students returning after being stuck across the border during the pandemic, and Hong Kong-born children of mainland parents.
The other organisers of the fair are the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary School Council, the Subsidised Primary Schools Council and the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association.
The influx of students followed a strong response from mainlanders to the Top Talent Pass Scheme targeting big earners and graduates from a list of the world’s top 100 universities.
The English Schools Foundation, the city’s largest international school group, said earlier that children of those recruited through the scheme would be given priority for interviews if they applied.
But Chen said he did not think other schools would take the same approach as it would be unfair to the children of those who did not arrive through the scheme.
Agreeing, secondary school principal Lee Yi-ying, chairwoman of the Subsidised Schools Council, said all students should have an equal opportunity to enter their preferred institutions.
She said the school groups had come together to organise the fair partly as a response to the shrinking number of local students. Since last year, there have been four school mergers because of under-enrolment.
But Lee added that the schools hoped the fair would provide non-locals with a better understanding of the attractive aspects of the city’s education system.
“We also train talent for Hong Kong’s future,” she said.
Early pupil withdrawals drop significantly at elite Hong Kong secondary schools
Asked whether mainland parents would focus only on popular and elite schools at the fair, both heads advised parents to choose institutions that suited their children’s abilities and personality.
Emphasising the fair was meant to show parents the different kinds of schools in Hong Kong, they hoped parents would choose ones near their homes, rather than focus only on top institutions.
