Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3012797/parents-spare-your-children-humiliation
Comment/ Opinion

Parents, spare your children the humiliation

  • At the start of every summer, there is the sorry sight of families rushing to the entrances of schools at the last minute like beggars, only to be turned away by unsmiling teachers
This time last year outside St Matthew's Lutheran School in Sau Mau Ping, dozens of parents were seen lining up in hope of getting a place for their child during the so-called "door-knocking" process. Photo: Edward Wong

Parents of children entering Primary One call it “door-knocking”, but it’s more akin to begging for a school place. A little tweaking of the system could easily address this humiliating exercise, yet it happens every year while parents complain about not getting their children into the schools they want.

It’s a pathetic sight, and wholly avoidable. But each year, upset parents try their luck to get their children into “better” schools. Most are unlikely to succeed, given the few discretionary places each such school reserves for last-minute admissions.

Though hard statistics should tell them it’s not worth the effort, many parents still drag their children along, thereby subjecting them to the undignified process and more rejections. At the start of every summer, there is the sorry sight of families rushing to the entrances of schools at the last minute like beggars, only to be turned away by unsmiling teachers.

This year is no exception. This is despite the fact that pupils have the highest success rate in eight years in being assigned to a school of their choice. Of the 27,334 children who took part in the Primary One central allocation system, 19,992 were granted one of their top three choices, a success rate of 73 per cent. Competition is less fierce in this and coming years as local couples have fewer children while the number of cross-border pupils is reduced each year as the delayed effect of banning mainland mothers from giving birth in local hospitals from 2013 is being felt.

According to the Education Bureau, the number of cross-border pupils has more than halved from 3,327 last year to 1,157 this year.

The cruel irony is that central allocation was supposed to make such dashing for school places unnecessary, as everyone who takes part in the system will be assigned a school, with the majority getting into a school that they want.

The phenomenon is less a quirk of the system than the ingrained competitive nature of many local parents, who demand their children get into the “best” schools.

If schools limit the number of such last-minute places, parents will have less incentive to fight over them.

But schools like to have this flexibility to admit a few more choice students while parents demand their right to try their luck “one last time”, so the government is happy to stand aside and do nothing.