Stem Plus founder and chief executive officer Peter Lau Ching Wai expected more than 200 schools to participate in the next fair, which will be held from July 5 to 7.
“Many principals are very positive about this expo because it will be very helpful for admissions,” Lau said. “Some people received 150 applications during the event.”
He said many parents who attended last month's event asked about kindergartens, but there were only two kindergartens available.
“We are currently working with several organizations representing the kindergarten sector to invite kindergartens to participate,” he said.
His company coordinated the December event hosted by the Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council, Hong Kong Directly Subsidized Scheme Schools Council, Subsidized Primary Schools Council, and Hong Kong Subsidized Primary School Principals Association.
Although they will not be participating in the Expo in July, the councils plan to participate in the third Expo in December.
The city's schools are beginning to address declining enrollment due to a decline in births, which will drop from 52,900 in 2019 to 43,000 in 2020 and 37,000 in 2021. In 2022, the number of people decreased to 32,500.
Schools that were unable to attract sufficient enrollment faced consolidation or closure.
Nearly 10,000 attendees gather at Hong Kong School Expo for mainland Chinese students
Nearly 10,000 attendees gather at Hong Kong School Expo for mainland Chinese students
The expo was a means to encourage the registration of mainland children who immigrated to the city from the Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong province.
Lau said mainlanders who visited the expo last month liked that principals were present and answered questions directly.
“Schools where the principal was present were clearly more popular because parents were grateful for the respect shown and were able to get more useful details from the principal,” he says.
He said planning for the third fair, to be held in December, has begun with the school council and venues have already been booked.
Dion Chen, president of the Direct Grant Schools Council, said the response last month was “better than expected”, with some schools receiving a large number of applications.
“Parents have asked for application details for Primary 1 to Primary 6 and Secondary 1 to Secondary 5,” he said.
There were also visitors from areas outside the Greater Bay Area, which were not targeted by Hong Kong schools.
“Some came from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan, while others came from the three northeastern provinces far away from Hong Kong,” he said.
Tourists flock to the Hong Kong Product Expo, welcoming the return of “Food Plaza”
Tourists flock to the Hong Kong Product Expo, welcoming the return of “Food Plaza”
Among them are parents who are planning to move to the city based on various immigration systems and human resource development systems, and parents who want their children born in the city to attend schools in the city. It was included.
“Some say that their priority before settling in Hong Kong was securing a school place for their children. They wanted to be sure first which school their children would attend, so they could not even decide where to live. “I didn't have it,” Chen said.
Felix Yan Huong, president of the Hong Kong Early Childhood Educators Association, said the city's subsidized kindergartens are less attractive to mainland parents, who may be reluctant to participate in the expo. Ta.
“Mainland talents who come to Hong Kong under various schemes may be able to afford to attend private kindergartens, but they may not choose subsidized kindergartens in public housing estates,” he said. .
However, some kindergartens near the mainland border, such as Bei District, may be suitable for mainland children born in Hong Kong and residing in Guangdong province.
Mr Yang said these kindergartens may be interested in participating in the expo as their selling point is the shorter daily commuting time between home and kindergarten compared to children attending kindergartens in Kowloon. said.
The city's preschool sector has been the first to bear the brunt of the decline in the number of infants in the city, with enrollment numbers steadily declining since 2020.
2023 Hong Kong Food Expo and other trade fairs will attract nearly 500,000 visitors
2023 Hong Kong Food Expo and other trade fairs will attract nearly 500,000 visitors
He said the number of applications each subsidized kindergarten receives for the next school year has generally decreased by 20 to 30 percent.
As of November last year, the Hong Kong government had issued more than 47,000 dependent visas to the children of all talent recruited through the seven talent schemes.
The Education Department earlier said it did not collect statistics on how many of these children enrolled in public schools in the city.
