****************************
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, at a media session after officiating at the Grand Opening Ceremony of Harrow International School Hong Kong today (October 28):
Reporter: Will you make the development of international schools a priority given that the population policy says that we need to import overseas talent?
Secretary for Education: Yes, definitely. If you look at it, the development of Hong Kong very much relies on a lot of the incoming professional and business leaders, and therefore the provision of international schools will be very much important to them, particularly when the kids would follow the parents coming in.
Over the years, we have been able to provide sufficient international school places in general. If you look at the 49 international schools altogether, we get around 89 per cent occupancy rate. That means we still have some vacancies here and there. However, I have to be honest to say, depending on which type of educational provision versus the type of schools, there might still be imbalance in terms of demand and supply.
And early in the year, we had conducted the first ever survey about the demand and supply of international schools in Hong Kong. Our findings which we have already shared with the community said in general for the next five years, the secondary school places in general, the supply will meet the demand. However, for the primary school section in the next five years, we anticipate there will be a shortage of around 4 200 places.
For that reason, that is why what we have done is in 2013, we already had allocated three particular vacant school premises to international schools, altogether they would provide over 1 500 places. The next round of invitation for interest in building international school places will come pretty soon. We will continue doing this in order to make sure we have sufficient and timely provision of international school places. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, October 28, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:17
NNNN
