HK$500,000 per grade funds supplied to Hong Kong secondary faculties to encourage mergers as faculty rolls fall

A cost of at the very least HK$500,000 (US$63,745) for every grade is to be supplied to Hong Kong secondary faculties as an incentive to merge with different establishments as town faces a double whammy from falling rolls and the emigration wave.

Colleges with too few college students in Type One – fewer than two lessons with a complete of 26 pupils – could face closure after the train.

“For the reason that decline within the school-age inhabitants is structural as an alternative of transitional, we should plan for the provision of public faculty locations in the long term to make sure the wholesome and sustainable growth of the academic ecology and make good use of public sources,” the bureau mentioned in a round.

However the round mentioned faculties might retain academics to be made redundant on account of a merger for at the very least three years.

Two subsidised secondary faculties have been earlier informed they must shut their doorways in 2026.

The bureau selected incentives for college sponsoring our bodies to contemplate the choice of a merger, an answer promoted by the federal government in recent times.

A college that continues to function Type One after merging with one other establishment will obtain a one-off subsidy of HK$500,000 for every merged grade underneath the plan.

A spokesman for the bureau added if two faculties merged all years from Type One to Six, the only successor can be given HK$3 million.

2 Hong Kong major faculties to merge as shrinking scholar inhabitants takes toll

Different choices embrace operating the Type One lessons on a non-public foundation and making use of for a particular overview by the bureau, offering a broad curriculum, and group actions for these in Type One after they transfer as much as senior grades.

The bureau mentioned the funds have been designed to cowl the bills of a merger.

It added redundant academics might be retained for 3 years according to the numbers employed within the merged faculties the yr earlier than they joined forces.

Chu Kwok-keung, an training sector lawmaker and principal, mentioned the initiatives would solely be thought of by massive faculty sponsoring our bodies with dozens of establishments.

“A merger between faculties means the massive faculty eats the small one,” he mentioned.

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Hong Kong households discover contemporary begin in London

Hong Kong households discover contemporary begin in London

“The HK$500,000 would solely be given to the massive faculty after the train. How might a small faculty have incentives to merge with one other establishment?”

Lee Yi-ying, head of the Subsidised Secondary College Council, mentioned it welcomed measures to assist take care of the shrinking inhabitants and that the organisation would proceed to carry talks with the federal government on different potential options.

However Chu and Lee agreed the perfect answer can be to extend the variety of pupils.

He added some faculty campuses might be transformed into hostels to draw pupils from elsewhere to check within the metropolis.

Class dismissed: worse to come back for Hong Kong faculties amid falling births, migration

Authorities statistics confirmed there can be an virtually 14 per cent drop within the variety of kids eligible for Type One over the following few years, down from 71,600 this yr to 60,000 in 2029.

And never all of them would be a part of the college place allocation system as they might go on to personal sector training.

College sponsoring our bodies have up to now given the chilly shoulder to ideas of mergers, authorities sources mentioned.

There have been solely two mergers up to now within the secondary faculties sector up to now, with one in every of authorities faculties, that are extra simply managed.

The opposite concerned two faculties administered by Caritas Hong Kong deliberate to merge in September 2024.