HKSAR government revises cross-border student choice

The government announced on Thursday a revised mechanism to allow cross-border students to pick their schools in eight different school districts during the central allocation stage of Primary One admission in 2014.

The education sector welcomes the move, which will ease the pressure on the schools in Northern District, but there are worries some schools are too far from the border.

Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim said that from the 2014 school year, a new school catchment area is being set up consisting of eight districts in the New Territories to ease the pressure on the North District where most of the cross-border students go.

He spoke after a meeting with North District school principals and parents on Thursday.

The eight school areas are Sheung Shui, Sha Tau Kok, Fanling, Tuen Mun East, Tuen Mun West, Tai Po, Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long.

North District is currently short of 1,400 Primary One school places, according to the Education Bureau.

As well as addressing the place shortage issue, Ng said the new scheme will give crossborder students more choices.

“At this stage, we will ask the government schools and subsidized schools in the eight school nets to set aside a minimum of two places per class,” Ng said, adding that schools in other districts are also welcome to join.

The arrangement will be expanded in future to other nets, Ng said, pointing out that many schools outside the eight nets have already been teaching cross-border students and their school bus arrangements are already in place.

Some schools in Ma On Shan and Tung Chung will consider joining the scheme as they have been admitting cross-border students for years.

Chan Siu- hung, chairman of the North District Primary School Heads Association, worried that parents of cross-border students would still choose North District as their first priority and that parents would be displeased if their children were allocated to distant areas.

“If the students are allocated to Tung Chung, it will be difficult for them to go to schools. I fear that the situation will be more chaotic if the mainland parents are unhappy with the arrangement,” Chan said.

The increasing numbers of cross-border students caused disputes between parents on both sides last year since some local students in North District had to be allocated to other districts to make way for cross-border peers.

Wong Kwan- yu, chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, says the new scheme will be beneficial to students who live in North District but cautions that it will increase traveling costs for cross-border families.

“If cross-border students are allocated to other districts, their daily commute will be more time-consuming and costly. Also, if there are only a handful of students being sent to a certain district, it will be very difficult for them to get regular bus services,” Wong said.

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen asked the government to ensure that the principle of “study in the closest area” be upheld, in which local students be measured by walking distance, while cross-border students be measured by traveling distance after crossing the immigration checkpoint.

Ip believes the new school net is “too broad” and thinks it will be difficult for cross-border students to attend schools within a reasonable distance. He also urged the government to provide extra resources for the participating schools with additional manpower.