Source:
https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3077890/fees-fears-and-uncertainty-will-parents-frustrations-about
Hong Kong/ Education

Fees, fears and uncertainty: will parents’ frustrations about Hong Kong school closures and charges end up backfiring?

• While the English Schools Foundation has announced a freeze on charges for the next year, some schools are forging ahead with increases and sending out demands for deposits

Children at ESF Tung Chung International Kindergarten. ESF has announced a freeze on charges for at least the next year. Photo: Edmond So

The process of applying to international schools in Hong Kong can push even the calmest of parents over the edge. It’s a notoriously competitive scene that repeats itself year after year. At Top Schools, we have been working with families for more than eight years to provide support and guidance each step of the way and place children in schools where they’re able to thrive.

Typically, we advise parents to get in touch at least one full year before they need a school place. Assessments and interviews begin around November, offers start to arrive in January, deposits are then made and we all relax.

When it comes to 2020-21 – it’s definitely not business as usual. Schools have been closed since the end of January and, in all likelihood, will remain closed for the remainder of the school year. Teachers and pupils are ploughing on with ‘home learning’ online. Many parents, at their wits’ end, are now coming to terms with the realisation that their children may not see the inside of a classroom again this academic year.

What many are struggling to reconcile themselves with, however, is the heavy financial burden they’re shouldering for the “reduced service” they’re now getting. The government has offered a small sweetener in the form of a one-off grant, but at just HK$3,500 per pupil, it’s peanuts compared to the annual cost of private school tuition, which ranges from HK$82,500 to HK$225,710 at primary level and HK$108,000 to HK$260,800 for secondary pupils.

Some parents have already withdrawn their children from schools they were otherwise happy with. Many more are considering doing the same. Others have simply stopped paying for the time being – some out of necessity, some due to procrastination, while some have just downright refused. Many are withholding payment for next term, deeply unhappy about continuing to pay in full for a service the schools can simply no longer provide. But while parents have been caught up in chatter demanding discounts and refunds for the current academic year, schools have been busy planning for next year, and instead of offering discounts, they’re forging ahead with fee increases and sending out demands for deposits.

Among the schools proposing fee hikes are Malvern College Hong Kong, which has put forward a 5.5 per cent increase, and The Harbour School, which is proposing a raise of between 4.45 per cent and 4.59 per cent.

Parents, some would say understandably, are incensed at what they see as complete insensitivity on the part of the schools. An online petition requesting the Education Bureau (EDB) to decline applications for fee increases received 100 signatures in just four hours after being launched on March 25. The next day, that number had jumped to 500 and is now over 1,000.

Venting frustration on the Facebook group Hong Kong Schools, one parent described the proposed increases as “shocking given the past, current and unforeseen circumstances with Covid”, going on to say, “Every other industry has been given pay cuts, required to take unpaid leave, etc”.

Others agreed, with one reply stating: “What a joke given how everyone has been pinched so tightly. HK is in a recession, [we’ve] lost half the school year and [we’re] still paying full fees. The fees should be locked at current [levels] for the next year at the very least.”

Not all schools have applied for an increase in fees, however. The English Schools Foundation (ESF) – the largest provider of English-language education in Hong Kong – has announced a freeze on charges for at least the next year. Hong Kong Academy (HKA) has taken the same approach. In a statement, the school said: “The HKA community is acting collectively to navigate these unprecedented times. Together we are taking responsible action and looking to the long term sustainability of our programmes. Therefore fees and salary increases have been frozen for the 2020-21 school year.”

Keeping parents on side like this could well prove to be a wise move, although no school is immune to the uncertainty that the current situation presents. Are the schools concerned? You bet they are! How many pupils will end up withdrawing? How many new pupils will enrol? Schools that have historically had long waiting lists now have spaces. It may well end up being the wake-up call many parents have been waiting for – a welcome side-effect of a distressing situation.

In a usual yearly cycle, parents of current pupils are invited to express their intent to re-enrol their children for the next year around Easter. For 2020, some schools have already gone through this process. In most cases, the intent must be backed up with a substantial (non-refundable) deposit. But while the official line from the secretary for education, Kevin Yeung, is that schools aren’t seeing that many withdrawals, the truth is it’s too early to know how it will all play out. The re-enrolment exercise isn’t yet complete. Some parents who have expressed intent may later retract; many haven’t replied yet; some haven’t even been asked.

In fact, when scrutinising admissions policies, it becomes quite clear that many aren’t all that robust. They often explicitly mention that parents must give notice to withdraw, but if parents fail to confirm whether their child will or won’t return the following year, at what point does the school conclude that they won’t? How do they decide whether that place will be vacant or not?

Let’s look at another scenario: A parent positively responds that their child will return next year and secures the place with a deposit. They then decide, however, to withdraw their child for April, May and June and they give the required notice to do so. It’s a fictional scenario, yes, but it illustrates how some admissions directors are coming to realise that their policies aren’t exactly watertight and don’t cover every eventuality – unprecedented times lead to unprecedented reactions.

How will schools mitigate the risk? We predict that this year they will enrol more local children than usual. True international schools – those listed here: internationalschools.edb.hkedcity.net – have an agreement with the EDB to enrol a minimum number of international pupils. That means any pupil holding a passport other than HKSAR (sometimes PRC too, though this is a grey area), regardless of whether they also hold a HKSAR passport. The minimum percentage ranges from 50 per cent to 98 per cent, depending on each school’s individual agreement.

For those at the higher end of the scale, meeting the requirement can be a challenge, and they often end up with scores of local children in the waiting pool, unable to enrol because of the restrictions. Will schools exceed their quota? They might have to if they aren’t bringing enough money in. The EDB may choose to turn a blind eye, or they may even give the green light.

Rebalancing things won’t be easy in the short term, and each school, on renewing its agreement with the EDB, is likely to see relaxed terms in this regard. Potentially, the EDB could re-examine the market as a whole and adjust or standardise quotas for international students. Those who withdrew their international children may struggle if they need to get them back in.

Combine all of this with January’s announcement that, in the future, each school must agree any ‘additional’ fees with the EDB – levies, debentures and so on – and the picture becomes even more complicated. These certainly are unprecedented times. How Hong Kong’s international education system emerges from them remains to be seen.