Hong Kong's Education Bureau, harried in recent years at the prospect of shrinking enrollment, now faces a need to expand its elementary schools to accommodate the expected influx of students who will commute across the border from the mainland.

Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim said on Thursday the government will draw up a list of potential remedies once it has reviewed expectations of the demand for elementary school places which will be needed most acutely in the city's Northern districts, straddling the Special Administrative Region's boundary with neighboring Shenzhen.

He said mainland children born in Hong Kong and studying here while residing in Shenzhen will represent a sizable cohort in the near future and that preparations must be made to incorporate them into the city's education system.

With demand for primary one places expected to swell in the Northern districts, Ng suggested parents of local children and cross-border commuting pupils studying in the area consider less crowded schools in Northwest New Territories.

There are just over 600 places for an estimated 1,700 children in Sheung Shui this year while local parents have complained their kids are being displaced from nearby schools by a growing influx of mainland children with right of abode in Hong Kong.

He said the department will also consider more classes and expanded class sizes to deal with the shortage of places.

Education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen welcomed the move to increase the number of placements but added, the government will need to divert more funding to maintain high educational standards.

"This is a huge problem that needs to be solved expeditiously and we need better education planning. If we could have foreseen the present situation, we could have laid the foundation for greater capacity," he said.

He suggested the government identify under used schools in neighboring districts to take the pressure off Sheung Shui schools, while reactivating mothballed village schools to create greater supply.

The Education Bureau has hinted that children residing in Hong Kong may be given priority for school placements, however, no official announcement has been made.

The suggestion has already attracted criticism from North District Primary School Heads Association Chairman Chan Siu-hung who said preferential treatment could lead to charges of discrimination by non-local parents.

Chan has called for the speedy construction of more village schools to fulfill his estimated 1,000 place shortfall.

Ng also said land reserved for higher education will not be reassigned for residential flats to fulfill the Chief Executive's aggressive public housing program.

He said plans for higher learning sites in Fanling, Shatin, Tai Wai and Wong Chuk Hang will be kept for the development of self-financing private tertiary institutions, with nine letters of intent already received for the Fanling site.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 01/25/2013 page1)