Education Chief Insists No Significant Drop in Pupils

School may have started but class numbers have plunged

 

The Hong Kong government continues to spin, spi,n spin, hoping the more they repeat things, the more they become fact.

A few days ago Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor insisted there wasn't a crackdown on civil society groups, only that the national security police are investigating them to ensure they aren't violating the law.

Yeung insists there is no big drop in pupils

But the reality is that many of the groups are attacked by pro-Beijing media, causing the organizations to disband as quickly as possible in a bid to avoid further trouble. But security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung says the authorities are already investigating the groups even if they are dissolving.

So is that a crackdown or not?

Today it's a quibble about the number of students in the city.

Schools have reported cutting the number of classes, but the Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung claims this does not mean there is a huge drop in pupils.

Official figures show 66 classes have been cut citywide, and with each class having about 25 students, that's about 1,600 spots that were cut.

Many have gone overseas in past year

The Education Bureau expects some 60,000 students starting in Primary One this year. 

"I think there is some misunderstanding on the figures... Does it mean we are seeing a significant drop in students? That is not really the case," Yeung told reporters.

"It does not actually reflect the forecast of the [number] of possible Primary One students. What we will be doing by the middle of the month is a headcount of the new Primary One students, then we will know better [if there is] any major change in the population or the number of students admitted to Primary One."

But primary school heads believed the number of classes were cut due to many families emigrating this year, particularly over the summer, prompted by the national security law.

Another reason is mainland students who used to cross the border everyday to go to school in Hong Kong, have dropped out after months of online classes.

Cross-border students have quit HK schools

In July, official data showed more than 15,000 students had quit school in 12 months, with nearly 691,000 students enrolled in primary and secondary schools as of October last year, down from more than the 706,000 registered in 2019.

Meanwhile, figures from the Census and Statistics Department last month showed a net outflow of about 89,200 residents over the year from mid-2020.

Yeung however did concede there has been an increase in people leaving Hong Kong recently and children of various ages are moving to other places.

So how can he say there hasn't been a drop in student numbers? Of those 89,200 people who left Hong Kong, many of them must be children...