Costly student tours to Arctic defended

Sophie Hui and Wallis Wang

The HK$180,000 summer study tour to Svalbard near the North Pole will focus on scientific research and it may have an impact on the future ambitions of students, says Pui Ching Middle School superviser Ho Kin-chung.

Ho, an ecology professor and the founder of the Polar Research Institute of Hong Kong, said on a radio program yesterday that 70 percent of the cost was for renting an icebreaker to carry students, parents, teachers and alumni safely to designated locations for collecting samples and doing research.

"This icebreaker is very expensive," Ho said. "I think maybe other ordinary study tours have poor quality and people think visiting the North Pole is just for aurora viewing and students will only gain a shallow understanding from a fleeting glance."

His comments came after a heated discussion on the costly study tour scheduled in July to Svalbard, an island group midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole.

Some online users said a similar tour offered by travel agencies costs HK$90,000 per person.

Five primary five or six pupils from Pui Ching Primary School in Ho Man Tin, each with a parent, will join 45 secondary students from Pui Ching Middle School and Pui Ching Middle School (Macau).

Parents are charged HK$150,000 each for the 12-day tour. For each student, the total amount goes down to HK$30,000 after receiving alumni subsidies.

Ho said the private school has been organizing such study tours with hands-on learning for six years and it has been popular among students and parents.

He said a dozen primary pupils have applied to join the tour and the school will choose five of them after a stringent selection process. Teachers and professors will read through the research proposal submitted by the students, while their parents also have to fulfill requirements, including that they want to be "citizen scientists" capable of and interested in conducting research.

Ho said the tour will involve topics like the impact of aurora on magnetogravity wave on earth, and students will have to follow up their research and learn how to write a report.

Ho said the value of the tour cannot be determined simply bit its price as it may have an impact on a student's future.

Education-sector lawmaker Chu Kwok-keung told The Standard that there are few expensive study tours among schools now and most study tours are cheap.

"For example, a five-day tour to mainland cities will only cost around HK$1,000 with the subsidies from the Education Bureau. Even if parents have to pay the full price, the tour will only cost a few thousand dollars," he said.

"Some schools with high tuition fees may organize such tours and have enough students joining.

"But expensive study tours will not be a new trend, especially after widespread media coverage of the Pui Ching tour, which may have a negative impact on such tours."

The 12-day study tour in 2018 brought 23 students and teachers to the North Pole.

This is the first time quotas for primary students are set with parental engagement.