Education Secretary Michael Suen calls for participation from all institutions

The government's voluntary class reduction scheme is faring poorly, with only 23 schools signing up for the scheme introduced in a bid to avoid closure of some secondary schools because of declining enrolment.

The Education Bureau introduced the voluntary class-reduction scheme earlier this year, in the hope that schools with a 24-classroom campus would reduce the number of Secondary One classes from five to four by September of next year.

Latest projections for annual intakes of Secondary One students anticipate a decrease in student enrolment of 28.5 percent from the present 75,400 students to 53,900 students in 2016.

The government cannot make an authoritative assessment of expectations after 2016, because enrolment may be affected by children born to mainland parents, who return to Hong Kong for their secondary schooling.

Speaking at a press conference, Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung invited all schools, including aided schools and government schools, to consider joining the scheme.

"We are well aware of the importance of maintaining the quality of education and making proper use of public resources while respecting parenting choice and minimizing the adverse disruption brought on by this unwelcome development," Suen said.

"Our best course of action is to try to contain the situation and maintain a balanced diversity of schools," Suen added.

In addressing teachers' concerns over staff cuts, Suen said the government would do its utmost to maintain the stability of the teaching force so that they could concentrate on their work.

At historic schools, some teachers are retiring. The number of teachers will decline through natural attrition. At newer schools however, most teachers are young and years from retirement. In view of this, Suen promised the government would "take the right remedial steps to handle the issue".

Some 30 schools are facing the threat of closure next year after they failed to recruit the minimum 61 students to operate three Secondary One classes this year. The administration allows a one-year grace period to enable them for future development.

"We need far more schools to participate in this scheme. Through preliminary discussions, it has been suggested that secondary schools with inadequate teaching space should reduce the number of classes so as to provide a conductive learning environment," Suen noted.

To avoid reducing classes, schools need to make sure there are enough teaching spaces. "We will return some rooms back to classrooms as they had been used with a different purpose previously. Thus, we will have 30 classrooms to ensure that our classes will not be reduced," Principal of Kiansu-Chekiang College (Shatin) Chan Hon-ling told Cable TV.

Suen ruled out the possibility of introducing small classes, saying the average number of students in each class is 36 and will eventually be reduce to 30 in a few years. "At the moment, our policy is flexible enough to allow certain schools that did not manage to enroll more than 61 students to three classes to survive. To suggest that all classes to be operated around 20 per class is asking too much because the financial strain on the public purse is too much," Suen said.

China Daily

(HK Edition 09/14/2010 page1)