The Education Bureau has pledged to spend HK$1.4 billion a year on reducing class size in secondary schools.

Secretary for Education Michael Suen announced in the Legislative Council Budget Debate yesterday that the number of students required for opening a secondary one class will be reduced from 38 to 36 in the 2009/10 school year and 34 in 2010/11.

For schools with surplus teachers, the number of secondary one students required for opening a class will drop from 35 to 33 in September and further to 30 next year.

Suen said the measure will not only alleviate concerns of educators over school closures triggered by a drop in student population, but the lower teacher-to-student ratio will also enhance teaching effectiveness.

"We hope that this will enable schools to focus their attention on the implementation of the new senior secondary curriculum (in 2009)," Suen said.

"Small-class teaching must be premised on quality education. It is not a means to tackle the drop in school enrolment," Suen added.

The number of primary six students joining the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) system has dropped from 77,300 in the 2006/07 school year to 72,322 in 2007/08.

Schools in Tuen Mun, Tai Po and Sha Tin are severely affected by the drop in student population.

Schools in Tuen Mun have even launched promotional campaigns to attract students living on the mainland.

Education professionals said not only did the measure come too late, it is also inadequate to deal with the dropping student population.

Education Convergence chairman Ho Hon-kuen said the measure is heading in the right direction but it is too conservative and the pace of implementation is too slow.

"We strongly demand that the government reduce class size to 30 students by September next year to cope with the new senior secondary academic structure," Ho said.

Sha Tin District Secondary School Heads Association vice-chairman Cheng Cho-chak said the government should reduce class size to under 30 in secondary schools.

"There is an urgent need to address the drop in enrolment in the new school year," he said.

(HK Edition 04/24/2008 page1)