ESF tackles teacher drain

The English Schools Foundation lost 14 percent, or some 170, of its teachers in the last school year.

That was 5.5 percentage points higher than a 8.5 percent teacher attrition the year before as expatriate teachers left Hong Kong to return to their countries amid the SAR's strict Covid-19 travel restrictions, ESF chairman Kim Mak said.

But Mak said of the current 1,200 teacher strength that 130 were hired in an employment drive last year, and that filled all the vacancies.

Mak also told The Standard that the loss was not a result of the migration wave as most teachers in Hong Kong's 22 ESF schools, which together have about 18,000 students, are expatriates and native English speakers.

"The 14 percent attrition is the highest we have seen in recent years," he said, "but it is definitely not a record high."

Mak also said teachers had left the SAR to visit families in their hometowns then chose not to return due to Hong Kong's seven-day hotel quarantine requirement.

Such hotel quarantine requirement also caused difficulties in the recruitment effort, he added, as convincing teachers to change their bases was difficult when Hong Kong maintained tight pandemic controls.

"We have also started planning ahead for next year's annual recruitment to attract teachers to the ESF for August 2023," he revealed. "The number of potential candidates already applying tells us that people are keen to come to Hong Kong."

But Mak admitted ESF schools have also seen "more withdrawals than normal" on student strengths from January to March this year, with the total enrollment down by up to 1.3 percent compared to the second term last year. However, he said, all places have been taken by students on waiting lists.

"I hope [increased withdrawals] will only last for a short time," Mak said, adding that apart from students leaving as their families were emigrating the foundation also noted that some expatriate families were staying put in their home countries.

The foundation has also spent HK$1 billion on a new Island School campus in Mid-Levels, which Mak noted is about to go into operation after three years of construction from June 2019.

The new campus, eight floors in total, covers an area of 130,000 square feet and will have a capacity for more than 1,200 students.

Students left two temporary campuses in Sha Tin in June and will be in the new campus on Borrett Road this month.

One of the features of the school is a school bus stop within the campus, Mak said, and facilities that have been enhanced include a new swimming pool and a performance venue.

On students' performances in the International Baccalaureate exam, for which results were released on July 6, Mak said the ESF still managed to see 12 percent of pupils attain the highest score range of 44-45 compared to a global average of 4 percent.

Thirty-six students from ESF schools scored a full mark of 45 and 62 attained 44 scores.

Make admitted, though, that it will be more challenging for IB students this year as the university admission schedule last year was "in a mess" amid the pandemic. Some students who took the exam would choose to apply to university this year.

A group of International Baccalaureate candidates had in March launched an online petition urging the cancellation of the exam in April and instead awarding grades by school assessments and predicted grades. More than 600 people signed the petition.

But the IB overseers said only students who failed to sit for the exam due to quarantine or "circumstances that prevent the administration of exams" would be allowed to attain grades without exams as "a contingency measure."

On whether it was unfair for local IB candidates to take the exam, Mak said the ESF has been following the Hong Kong administration's instruction to change between online and face-to-face classes and ensure students' learning progress.

But he understood students' worries about changing school schedules, adding that students' "outstanding performance" for their IB results this year has proven that local students possess great resilience and their abilities to go further in education.