5th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) The fall in Hong Kong’s school-age population is a structural problem that will not reverse in the next few years, the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said today, warning that the toolkit used to keep campus numbers intact has already been exhausted.
Speaking again on a radio programme, Choi said the birth rate had slid over the past five to ten years and that no turnaround was in sight for the years ahead. Reality had to be faced, she argued, as schools come under enrolment pressure and some cut classes or are allocated no Primary One places at all.
Public-sector places had not been heavily reworked over a decade, she noted, even as the pool of children shrank. Sponsors and schools had stretched every available measure to preserve the existing stock of campuses, but those options were now spent. Numbers could not be protected at the expense of educational development.
Because she saw little chance of a rebound within five to ten years, Choi urged school sponsoring bodies and individual schools to plan an early “soft landing”. The present squeeze, she said, should be treated as a chance to lift the quality of primary and secondary education rather than a reason to cling to empty classrooms.
The bureau is already talking to sponsors ahead of crises, pressing schools that look likely to fall short on intake to decide in good time whether to merge, tidy up arrangements or close. Waiting until almost no choice remains—and a “zero class” allocation is nearly upon them—leaves both schools and parents scrambling when operations suddenly stop.
Mergers, Choi stressed, are not a “school-rescue package”. The aim is to help campuses “do better and grow bigger”, expanding pupil numbers, classes and teaching teams to a more normal scale so that campus life and learning activities are richer. Merged schools can receive up to HK$1 million in extra subsidy, and surplus teachers may be kept through a transition period. Schools remain hungry for talent, she said, so able teachers need not fear being left without work.
Pupils who do not wish to stay at a campus heading for closure will be helped to transfer within the same district, and Choi repeated that the government will not cut off resources simply because a school is winding down.