Hong Kong’s public primary and secondary schools recorded 63,098 vacancies in November, with secondary school vacancies seeing an increase of over 800 seats in a month, latest data from the Education Bureau showed.
The data obtained by HKFP came after a survey published in early December showed that Hong Kong’s secondary schools lost almost 4,500 students and 1,000 teachers in the last academic year – an average of 32 students and seven teachers per school.
HKFP also compiled data from four prestigious secondary schools: Good Hope School, St. Paul’s Coeducation College, St. Joseph’s School, and Maryknoll Convent School (Secondary Section), and found that the institutions had seen at least an 8 per cent student early exit rate in the last academic year.
Among the four academies, Good Hope School had the highest number of early exits, with 165 students leaving during the last school year. St. Joseph’s School also recorded 12.7 per cent of its students dropping out in the last academic year.
The data came amid a mass exodus in the city following the anti-extradition bill protests in 2019 and the implementation of the Beijing-imposed national security law in June last year, with Hong Kong recording a net outflow of over 70,000 people in mid-2021.
However, in October, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said following the publication of her last Policy Address of the current term that she did not want the government to be the one asking citizens to stay in the city.
“We need to show citizens, whether those who have already left or are planning to emigrate, to see that what Hong Kong’s prospects will be,” said Lam.
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