Closing Hong Kong schools with low enrolment will hurt special education kids: parents

The rising number of schools facing closure due to insufficient enrolment has raised concerns over the impact on students with special educational needs (SEN), with parents saying such at-risk institutions provided better care and instruction for their children than those whose survival is secure.

Marcia Ng Mun-chi, co-founder and executive director of the Hong Kong Association for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), recently raised concerns following the Education Bureau’s announcement last month that 15 public primary schools were at risk of closure.

These schools will not be allowed to operate subsidised Primary One classes in the coming academic year due to insufficient enrolment, with authorities saying the figure was the highest in recent years.

Ng said most of the schools facing closure had been focused on – or were good at – taking care of SEN students and parents preferred them as they had seen their children struggling in mainstream schools, particularly elite ones.

Most of these parents had transferred their children to schools that offered lower teacher-to-student ratios and excelled at SEN education, she added.

Ng conceded that some schools had positioned themselves as SEN-focused institutions after finding themselves at risk of closing. But they gradually became good at special needs education after a few years.