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Hong Kong authorities have approved five secondary schools, including some elite institutions, to open an additional Form One class from September. According to the Education Bureau on Thursday, the five schools include Queen’s College and Wah Yan College Hong Kong, both top boys’ schools in Wan Chai. The other three, all located in the North district near the border, are Christian Alliance S W Chan Memorial College, TWGHs Kap Yan Directors’ College and TWGHs Li Ka Shing College. Queen’s College and Wah Yan College Hong Kong, regarded as elite boys’ schools, currently each operate four Form One classes, with about 35 to 36 students per class in the 2023–24 school year. The expansion means around 70 more students will be admitted to these two schools in the coming year compared with the current term. The three North district schools currently run five Form One classes, though one of these classes at each school was “provisional”, according to the bureau. From September, all three will formally operate five Form One classes. They each had around 33 to 34 students per class in 2023–24. In May, the Education Bureau announced that secondary schools with four Form One classes could apply to open one more in the new school year, with a cap of five approvals. The bureau said the policy aimed to provide quality education and respond to parents’ needs. “The Education Bureau fully understands the school sector’s concerns about the healthy development of the school ecosystem. Therefore, the quota for 2026 is five,” it said. It added that the decision to approve the five schools to operate an additional Form One class was based on a detailed review of various factors, including school facilities, their track record, parental demand, the overall balance of school places across Hong Kong, and their locations. At the same time, the bureau raised the minimum number of pupils required to run a Form One class from 25 to 27 this school year, with the threshold to be further increased to 29 in the 2026–27 academic year. Public secondary schools must operate at least two Form One classes to qualify for government subsidies, meaning they will need to enrol at least 30 students next September. Chu Kwok-keung, lawmaker for the education constituency, said the new measure would mainly affect academically weaker schools amid falling student numbers. “I called on the parents to choose schools based on the children’s ability and interest,” he said. Government projections show that the number of 12-year-old Form One students will drop from 58,800 in 2025 to 49,800 in 2031 – a 15 per cent decline. The Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools criticised the Education Bureau for not consulting the sector before allowing popular schools to apply for an additional Form One class, saying the move would intensify competition. In 2010, the bureau launched a months-long consultation on the “voluntary optimisation of class structure scheme”, which allowed schools operating five Form One classes to apply to reduce to four, to ease the impact of declining student numbers.
