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School places plea likely to get a fail

Height of Incompetence

Edward Yau Tang Wah and Michael Suen Ming Yeung should be charged with misconduct in public office for their failure to do their jobs during their tenure.

Why would people come here with families ?

Increased roadside pollution during Yau’s tenure, no ECA controls on our major polluter- ocean going vessels high sulphur fuel, no international school place planning.

(sure, great to have an expensive place in Tuen Mun when you live in Aberdeen and speak no Cantonese)

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School places plea likely to get a fail

International schools are being urged to raise the maximum number of students to a class to ease a shortage of places.

Eddie Luk

Thursday, June 06, 2013

International schools are being urged to raise the maximum number of students to a class to ease a shortage of places.

But the Education Bureau call appears likely to fall on deaf ears.

Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim told lawmakers yesterday that because of the expansion of the business community there will be an increase in students arriving from overseas with their families.

Taken with local demand, he said, it means increased pressure on international schools for at least five years.

International schools also need to reserve places for youngsters who arrive perhaps at short notice because their parents are relocated to Hong Kong.

Among current predictions, Ng added, there will be a shortage of at least 4,200 primary places in international schools in 2016-17.

Saying that about 14 percent of places are currently occupied by local students, Ng said the Education Bureau recently wrote to international schools “appealing to them to utilize the maximum class size to ensure effective use of land resources and premises and to accord higher priority to children from overseas families who come to Hong Kong with their parents.”

He added: “We also suggest international schools consider devising an allocation mechanism such as a certain proportion of places being earmarked for children whose parents are recruited or relocated from outside Hong Kong.”

The English Schools Foundation was lukewarm to the calls.

A spokeswoman noted that the ESF does not admit students based on nationality, and the current level of 30 students to a class is appropriate.

The foundation will also continue to base admissions on English proficiency and parents’ commitment to a school.

Karin Ann, founder of the International Montessori School in Hong Kong, said the current class size is 25 and is likely to stay that way.

The school will also carry on enrolling students of various nationalities to serve a diverse community.

Earlier, the government revealed that three vacant school premises will go to international outfits, with 1,700 places.

A site in Stanley has been granted to the International Montessori School, which will expand from its base in Tin Hau, while Jewish school Carmel is going to take over a site at Shau Kei Wan.

British group Nord Anglia Education will establish its first school in Hong Kong at a campus in Lam Tin.

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