86% of Hong Kong children get preferred school places as applications plunge 16%

Around 86 per cent of children seeking places in Hong Kong’s public primary schools have secured one of their top three choices through the central allocation system, a record high and up from about 79 per cent last year, as applicant numbers fell 16 per cent to 16,345, the steepest decline on record.

But a representative from a primary school council said the competition for discretionary places – commonly known as “door-knocking” – is unlikely to ease, as some parents whose children were allocated their second choice might still try to secure a place at their preferred school.

Most applicants this year were born in 2020, amid the fallout of the anti-government protests of 2019 and the Covid-19 pandemic. The birth rate that year fell by nearly 20 per cent to about 43,000.

The Education Bureau said on Friday that 14,093 children, or 86.2 per cent, were allocated a place in one of their top three choices under the central allocation stage. Pupils submitted their preferences in January.

“Taking into account discretionary places and the number of children allocated to schools of their first three choices in the central allocation, the overall satisfaction rate was 93.6 per cent,” a bureau spokesman said, with the rate being the highest since 1997.

In Hong Kong, Primary One places at public schools are allocated using a two-stage process.