Jitters Over New International School Intake Rule

Educators have criticised a government decision allowing international schools to enrol more local pupils, saying that could threaten local schools already battling a drop in student numbers.

The Education Bureau said it's temporarily relaxing a policy requiring international schools to allocate at least 70 percent of their places to non-local children. It cited families returning to their home countries because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The new policy is expected to last one or two years.

Officials also said they don't expect the mass transfer of local students to international schools because it's only a temporary measure.

During the 2019-20 academic year, non-local students accounted for 74 percent of the overall international school population.

Teachers' unions across the political divide are against the move. The pro-Beijing Federation of Education Workers said that might make it even harder for local schools to fill their places.

Meanwhile, the Professional Teachers' Union said local schools face an uncertain future as more parents try to get their children into international schools.

"In view of the present situation, especially there are certain political considerations among local families, I think if there is a relaxation of the ratio of local students in international schools, they might want to move to the international schools. So the threat is there," PTU vice president and education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen told RTHK's Timmy Sung.

"The major problem nowadays is we suffer from difficulties taking in enough students to cover all the schools in Hong Kong, no matter they are local schools or international schools.

"On the whole, you have a shortage of students."

Ip also accused the Education Bureau of failing to offer help to local schools, which could be forced to cut classes, affecting teachers' livelihoods.

"If the government only helps the international schools, local schools will have complaints about that," he said.