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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Mo-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (January 18):
Question:
It has been reported that, without the Education Bureau announcing in advance, a number of Anglo-Chinese secondary schools in Hong Kong were permitted to resume offering five Secondary One (S1) classes in the new school year and thus each of these schools can admit 180 S1 students, resulting in more discretionary places for such secondary schools than for those offering four S1 classes. Some parents claimed that, in the course of selecting secondary schools for their children, their planning had been affected without such knowledge. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) after launching the Voluntary Optimisation of Class Structure Scheme early last year, whether the authorities have published the class structures of various secondary schools for the next six years; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) of the criteria based on which the authorities balance the demands for S1 places in different school nets in approving the schools concerned to opt for a general reduction of classes or switch to a "cyclic symmetrical class structure", and how they ensure that parents may receive fair treatment in a highly transparent manner as far as possible when they select schools for their children; and
(c) given that some schools pointed out that switching to a "cyclic symmetrical class structure" is for striking a balance between the enrolment aspirations of students and the overall interests of the education sector, whether the authorities have assessed the situation of schools switching their choices in the next six years; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
It has been the practice of the Education Bureau (EDB) to approve the class structure of each school for the following school year in the light of the yearly review of the supply and demand of school places in each district, the school's actual enrolment and its future development plan etc. As a result, the class structure of a school may change over the years. It is therefore inappropriate to release the class structure of each school for the coming six years as it may cause confusion should the actual situation deviate from the planned one. Nonetheless, schools will publish their current class structure in the annual Secondary School Profiles. Besides, before the Central Allocation stage of the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System commences each year, the EDB will also distribute a Secondary School List to the parents of participating students, setting out Secondary One (S1) places provided by each school participating in the SSPA System in the relevant school net for parents' reference in making their choices.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(a) The EDB launched the Voluntary Optimisation of Class Structure Scheme (the Scheme) in 2010 to enable schools operating five S1 classes to reduce one S1 class in order to alleviate the impact on the school sector caused by the drastic decline in secondary school student population in the coming few years. Since the more the participating schools, the greater the stabilising effect on the school sector will be, schools joining the Scheme are also welcome to adopt a cyclic symmetrical class structure (i.e. reducing one S1 class every other year), other than a symmetrical class structure (i.e. reducing one S1 class every year). All schools joining the Scheme are required to indicate on the application form their proposed class structure for the EDB's approval. However, since the future class structure of a school may change subject to various factors outside the Scheme, such as the school's actual enrolment and its future development plan etc, it is inappropriate to release such information as it may cause confusion should the actual situation deviate from the planned one.
(b) Since participation in the Scheme is voluntary, the EDB will approve schools' applications according to their proposed class structure as far as possible. We understand that schools applying for the Scheme would have taken into account their own circumstances, including administrative arrangements after class reduction and the number of teachers approaching retirement etc, before they decided on the class structure to be adopted for class reduction. As mentioned above, it has been our practice to review and approve the class structure of each school on a yearly basis with reference to the relevant factors. Besides, before the Central Allocation stage, the parents of students participating in the SSPA System will receive a Secondary School List which provides the number of S1 school places offered by the participating schools in the relevant school nets for them to make suitable choices.
(c) Under the Scheme, the EDB will grant approval and arrange support measures based on the class structure proposed by each participating school. As far as the Scheme is concerned, schools should not switch to another class structure once approval has been granted. In the event that a participating school later requests to change its class structure, the EDB will review the situation of the school concerned and make a decision in accordance with the general practice as mentioned above. Since such a change of class structure is outside the scope of the Scheme, the support measures offered by the Scheme are not applicable to this subsequent change.
Ends/Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:06
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