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september 2 is the first day of the 2024-2025 school year in hong kong. hong kong media has compiled data from about 500 primary schools in the latest issue of "primary school overview" and found thatthe number of classes in aided primary schools across hong kong has been significantly reduced, with 70 schools reducing 77 primary one classes in the new school year.

in fact, as hong kong's fertility rate continues to decline, coupled with the impact of the immigration wave, there are fewer and fewer students of school age, and many schools are facing a survival crisis of "reducing classes and closing schools."

if schools are closed, the first to suffer are students. in order to solve the problem of more school places than students, education bureau director tsai ruo-lin previously stated that the"cross-region reset"method.

some of the better-run schools in areas with excess school places (such as the eastern and southern districts of hong kong island) will be relocated to new development areas. this will not only meet the development needs of the new areas, but also alleviate the problem of the "cliff-like drop" in student numbers in the old districts.

also,many schools also choose to merge with other schools belonging to the same or different educational groups.

yesterday, the principal of caritas wu cheng-chung college in southern district, au hoi-kin, said in a commercial radio program that caritas wu cheng-chung college and caritas walter college in tung chung will be merged in the new academic year and continue to operate in tung chung. about 95% of the original students in southern district will continue their studies.

ou haijian said,the biggest difficulty in merging the two schools is that their original operating models are different.wu cheng-chung secondary school is a subsidized school, while wah tak college is a direct-subsidy secondary school college. however, the two schools belong to the same educational organization, so coordination will be better.

integrate resources and complement each other's strengths

regarding the merger of the two schools, ou haijian said that the tung chung campus is one-quarter larger than the pok fu lam campus in the southern district. the campus had been renovated before the merger and added facilities such as an innovation and technology laboratory, a 7-person artificial turf football field and a volleyball court, which can provide students with a better learning environment and bring more resources.

he also mentioned,wu cheng-chung secondary school focuses on innovative and technological education, while huade college focuses on drama performances. the two resources complement each other and can increase students' choices in development directions.

he added that before the merger, there were only about 10 form 6 students left in huade college, and about 95% of the current students were from wu zhenzhong college in the southern district. the school has set up school bus services at major locations on hong kong island and tung chung station to facilitate students' commuting.

from this perspective, there are many benefits to school mergers, but there are also voices pointing out that merging schools is actually the same as closing them.

how to deal with the problem of excess teachers?

chu kwok-keung, a member of the legislative council for the education sector and also a primary school principal, believes thatthe current local school enrollment situation is serious. if the schools are merged, there will be an issue of excess teachers.

zhu guoqiang

he also mentioned,if the school-running group has no other affiliated schools to merge with, it will need to seek out schools with different backgrounds. for schools with better enrollment, mergers are not necessary. if two schools with weaker enrollment merge, it is hard to say that the school can be "resurrected."

it is worth noting that since hong kong optimized its talent admission schemes, about 130,000 people have been approved."highly talented"many of them brought their young children with them to settle in hong kong.

therefore, many people place their hopes on them to alleviate the problem of "class reduction and school closure".

it is unrealistic to rely on the children of talents coming to hong kong to “put out fires”

however, taking yau ma tei catholic primary school (hoi wang road) as an example, among the approximately 270 transfer applications this year,children of "highly talented" talents accounted for 40%, while no children of "excellent talent scheme" and "highly talented" talents were admitted to the first grade.

in this regard, principal chen shuyi said,there is a chance that the children of talented students coming to study in hong kong will slightly ease the reduction in class sizes, but it is unrealistic to expect them to "put out the fire" in the academic sector, because most of the children of "highly talented and versatile" students join classes in higher grades, rather than in primary one, which determines the number of "class opening lines".

zhu guoqiang believes that the talent plan can help alleviate the impact of the decline in the number of secondary school students, but it has little effect on primary schools because primary school admissions registration must be carried out one year in advance, but there are very few kindergarten students among the children of talents coming to hong kong, and some of them come to hong kong to join the class in fifth or sixth grade.

the above are basically the issues that the government and schools need to worry about. the following ones are even more of a headache for parents:

back-to-school expenses are expensive

before the start of each school year, the cost of textbooks, school uniforms, etc. comes one after another. when all is said and done, some families may even spend all their savings for the entire year.

on august 30, mr. orange arrived at a school uniform store in sham shui po and found that it was already crowded with parents who were preparing for their children's start of school.

she thinks that school uniforms and books should be4,000 to 5,000 yuan, and the price of books increases every year, so i don’t rule out buying second-hand ones in the future.

but now, second-hand school supplies are not cheap either⋯⋯

mr. ma, who sells second-hand books in mong kok, said that their customers are mainly grassroots people or people who care about environmental protection. however, book prices have risen this year. since second-hand books are discounted based on the original price, the selling price is also rising.

he gave an example, saying that this year the original price of a chinese book was 300 yuan, while a second-hand book would cost 150 yuan at half price.

yau tsim mong district councillor lee simin said that there are different organisations providing different levels of support, such as free after-school care or tutoring, but the number is still relatively small.

she believes that some women's organizations can cooperate with schools to carry out after-school care or education in the original schools, which is guaranteed and safer, and most importantly, can reduce family pressure.

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