Minister: Schools May Close As Pupil Numbers Fall

Education Secretary Kevin Yeung said on Saturday that officials would study closing or merging schools as pupil numbers fall.

Asked whether some teachers will lose their jobs as a result, Yeung said the government would work with schools to minimise the impact.

"There is a very obvious trend in decreasing student population. As a result, we have to look at the overall supply and demand of school places which have a direct impact on the number of schools we need in the territory," he said.

"There may be some changes in the number of teacher posts. In the whole process, we will maintain a continuous dialogue with the school sponsoring bodies, school management as well as the teachers so we want to minimise the impact on individual teachers."

In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council's panel on education earlier this month, the administration noted a decrease of 5.9 percent in primary school enrollment and 3.8 percent in secondary schools compared to last year.

It cited movement into and out of Hong Kong as one factor, as well as pupils moving to private, international and direct subsidy scheme schools.

The government said the Census and Statistics Department had projected a further decrease in the school-age population, a trend it said was likely to be structural rather than transient.

Some educators have urged the administration to take a cautious approach to school closures, arguing that the closure of schools around the turn of the century had led to a shortage of classes when numbers grew in the last decade.