International schools losing nonlocals

The population of local students in international schools has grown significantly over the past five years, particularly during the pandemic, as the number of nonlocal students has shrunk, with the latest ratio being one-to-two, the Education Bureau told lawmakers yesterday.

The number of nonlocal students fell from 30,345 in 2018/19 to 26,768 this academic year, while that for local students jumped from 9,853 to 13,858 in the same period.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said a total of 5,627 vacancies remain in international schools – 22 percent higher than the last school year due to an outflow of international students from the SAR to their national countries after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019.

The percentage of nonlocal students in international schools fell from 75.5 percent in 2018/19 to a five-year low of 65.9 percent in 2022/23, while for local students, the proportion rose from 24.5 percent to 34.1 percent in the same period.

But nonlocal students still account for the majority of the international school student body, which is around 70 percent, Choi said.

Choi said the higher than usual dropout rate among nonlocal students might be the result of them moving back to their hometowns with their families under the pandemic.

Despite the decline, she said enrollment in international schools has remained stable.

Choi said international schools providing places for nonlocal families in Hong Kong is not only highly valued by the bureau, but is also the most important goal as the pandemic eases.

“As Hong Kong actively attracts more foreign investment and talent, we expect the number of nonlocal students in international schools to increase gradually.”

The bureau is conducting a new round of consultancy studies to project the provision of international school places up to the 2028/29 school year and will monitor the market of such places, in line with the policy of “competing for enterprises” and “competing for talents” announced in the 2022 Policy Address.

International schools provide a total of 46,253 school places in the city and admitted 40,626 students this school year – 87.8 percent of the available places.