At least 4,050 teachers drop out of school this year

The number of teachers who have left public and direct subsidy schools has risen by 70 per cent over the figure for the previous academic year, the latest figures from education authorities show.

At least 4,050 teachers, representing 7.6 per cent of the teaching workforce, have already left their jobs in the current school year, a 70 per cent increase from the 2,380 who quit the year before, the Education Bureau said.

The provisional dropout figure for the current school year is also a nearly twofold increase compared to four years ago.

Of the 4,050 teachers, 3,580 were from public schools and the rest from direct subsidy schools. The provisional dropout rate for both institutions was 7.5 per cent and 8.4 per cent, respectively.

This coincided with a total of 3,790 teachers joining the industry in the same year, additions that accounted for 7.1 per cent of the overall manpower.

The bureau said the dropouts include those who retired, resigned to pursue further studies, moved to private or international schools, changed professions or left because of other reasons.

The latest figures only covered those teaching at public and direct subsidy schools. Staff at private or international schools were not included. The bureau also did not collect information on the lengths of service of those who had left.

Education minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung defended the rate of educators leaving.

“Although the wastage rate is slightly higher this school year, the operation of schools is smooth in general and schools have employed sufficient qualified teachers,” Yeung wrote in a reply to lawmakers’ questions.

He said demand for teachers would decrease along with the decline in the school-aged population and the bureau would make optimal use of limited public resources to ensure proper use of education spending.

This included reducing intake places in education-related degrees funded by the University Grants Committee in the academic years 2022-23 to 202425, Yeung said.

According to official data, the number of dropout teachers in the direct subsidy scheme sector hovered around 290 each school year in the past few years. But it jumped to 470 in 2021/22, up 67 per cent from 280 the year before.

Chiu Cheung-ki, vice-chairman of Hong Kong Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools Council, said the high teacher wastage in the last year was not too worrying.

“Some may emigrate overseas, some retire and many more leave for other schools for better benefits,” said Chiu, who is also principal of Chan Shu Kui Memorial School. “So long as schools can hire enough teachers to fill the vacancies, high turnover is not a big problem.”

New Territories School Heads Association vice-chairman Chu Wai-lam said he believed the turnover rate would settle after a new Education Bureau rule requiring new teachers in all public sector schools from the 2022-23 school year to pass a Basic Law test.

“Teachers can go nowhere else if they have not sat and passed the test. In a sense, they will get stuck and thus it could help stabilise the turnover rate,” he said.

Bernard Chan, convenor of the Executive Council, had warned earlier that retaining talent was an “imminent issue” amid a wave of emigration and the pandemic, with travel rules forcing some teachers, including expatriates, to quit to reunite with their families.