She described the drop in student numbers as a “structural” rather than a “transitional” issue, and that it would only exacerbate in the coming years.
This week, the Education Bureau announced tighter restrictions on how schools can continue to receive government funding, which effectively increased the risk of them closing down if they don’t enrol enough students.
Under current policy, schools can operate a class on private money for a year, and resume receiving government funding once they can meet the minimum intake of 16 pupils.
From September, such classes cannot revert to private funding again for six years.
And schools that are allowed to go private must ensure their pupils complete their primary education using private funds.
“In the past few years, we have lowered the class formation requirement. But today, we think basically all possible methods, all adjustments have been exhausted,” Choi told reporters after attending an event.
“We must face this problem squarely. We need to implement measures for the education sector’s stable and sustainable development in a timely manner.”
She noted that there had been fears more than 10 schools could face closure this year, but it turned out that only two were affected.
The secretary for education also said early next month, officials will reach out to parents whose children are due to attend Price Memorial Catholic Primary School in Wong Tai Sin and Southern District’s Aplichau Kaifong Primary School, two schools that won’t receive government grants to operate primary one classes in the coming academic year.
She said the two schools, which are left with the options of running the primary one class with private funds, merging with other schools or facing an eventual closure, have to decide the way forward themselves.
Only pupils who applied for the spots under the discretionary scheme would be affected, Choi said, because no pupils had been sent there through central allocation.
Meanwhile, Choi said students going on mainland study tours are reminded not to consume cold dishes, after dozens of students and teachers on such tours from three schools were said to have contracted gastroenteritis.
Health officials said they all went to eat at the same location in Shaoguan in Guangdong province, but the education chief stressed there’s no evidence their illnesses had to do with food served during the tours.
She added that to be on the safe side, operators of mainland study tours have stopped providing cold dishes.
