Another merger as schools keep hemmorrhaging pupils

Two more primary schools were ordered to merge starting from the 2024/25 school year amid a continuous decline in the student population, the Education Bureau announced yesterday.

North Point Government Primary School (Cloud View Road) in Wan Chai will merge with North Point Government Primary School near Quarry Bay MTR station

Primary four to six students in the academic year starting next Friday will continue attending classes at the Wan Chai school, while primary one to three students will transfer to the school in Quarry Bay from 2024/25 school year onward.

The Cloud View school will cease to operate from the 2026/27 school year.

The bureau said yesterday that it will "render appropriate assistance to parents who wish to transfer their children to other public schools in Wan Chai."

A bureau spokesman said the merger is due to "the structural decline in school-age population of primary schools in Hong Kong as a whole and the continuous drop in demand for primary school places in Wan Chai."

"Starting from the 2023/24 school year, the two schools will strengthen cooperation through organising various kinds of exchange activities for teachers and students" to aid the merger, the bureau said.

The Wan Chai school was formerly the afternoon school for North Point Government Primary School when half-day schooling was offered, so the merger "enables teachers and students of the two schools to reunite and extend the school history," it said.

The bureau encouraged schools to "plan ahead" in face of the structural decline in school-aged children, so as to "ensure sustainable development of the school sector and effective use of resources while maintaining the overall quality of education".

Another five schools could not receive enough primary one students for the 2023/24 school year, while Caritas initiated a merger between two of its schools in Tung Chung and Southern.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin has said: "We have already lowered the threshold of hosting a new year of primary one students from 24 to 16.

"If there are less than 16 students in a year, we find it to be not ideal for students in terms of social development and extracurricular learning and activities.

She praised Caritas for "having great foresight" and "not wasting taxpayers' money."