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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (January 28):
Question:
Currently, at the Discretionary Places Admission stage (DPA) under the Primary One Admission (POA) System, parents may submit applications for admission of their children to any government or aided primary school without the restriction of the school net. It has been reported that while more than 52 000 students participated in DPA of POA for September 2015, only 42.9 per cent of them have been admitted by their preferred schools. A number of parents of students consider the "Points System" set by the Education Bureau for the DPA unfair. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective total numbers of the discretionary places provided by the schools participating in DPA, the remaining discretionary places, and the places for Central Allocation provided in POA for September 2015 by the schools in various districts as demarcated in the "POA 2015 Primary School Lists by School Net for Discretionary Places Admission Stage"; and
(2) whether it will review the Points System for DPA, including increasing the weightings of the criteria for "first-born child" and
"applicant child of the right age", so as to increase the chances of students meeting these criteria to be admitted to their preferred schools; if it will review, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(1) The Primary One Admission (POA) System administered by the Education Bureau (EDB) aims to allocate public sector Primary One (P1) places (Note 1) in an orderly manner and to prevent using children's ability as an admission criterion so as to reduce the incentive for drilling children in early childhood education.
The POA System is divided into two stages, namely the Discretionary Places Admission stage and the Central Allocation stage. At the Discretionary Places Admission stage, parents may apply to any public sector primary schools. Each primary school will allocate no less than 20 per cent of its P1 places to applicant children according to the Points System. In brief, if a school is not oversubscribed for the relevant quota, the school should accept all the applicant children. If it is oversubscribed, the school should admit applicant children according to the objective (Note 2) Points System. At the Central Allocation stage, school places are allocated based primarily on parents' prioritised choices. In the event of oversubscription, school places of a school are allocated by means of the Random Number generated by the computer for each applicant child concerned.
The Discretionary Places Quota of each school is set out in the Primary School Lists by School Net for Discretionary Places, and the Provisional Number of Places for Central Allocation of each school in the Choice of Schools List by School Net for Central Allocation (Note 3). These Lists are also made available on the EDB's website during the relevant stage for reference of parents.
The Discretionary Places Quota is based on the provisional number of P1 classes, which is derived from the number of outgoing P6 classes or the number of classrooms divided by six (whichever is the greater and subject to the availability of classrooms), of a public sector primary school. The Quota constitutes 50 per cent of the total places of the provisional number of P1 classes of a school. Likewise, the Provisional Number of Places for Central Allocation is primarily based on the provisional number of P1 classes and may include the remaining discretionary places quota (if any) and additional places arising from use of other classrooms (if any) under individual schools' school-based development, etc.
Under the POA System, the whole territory is divided into 36 school nets on which public sector primary schools are located. To cope with the year-on-year changes in the demand and supply of school places at the Central Allocation stage, it is the established practice to borrow school places from neighbouring school nets/districts to meet the shortfall of a school net. The places so borrowed are counted towards the Provisional Number of Places for Central Allocation of the school net concerned. As a matter of fact, the eventual number of places for Central Allocation is subject to adjustment based on the actual demand. Take for instance, based on the available information, to meet the demand for the Central Allocation under POA 2015, it is estimated that the provisional number of students allocated to each class will temporarily increase to 31 in school net 73 (Yuen Long West), and 30 in school net 74 (Yuen Long East) and school net 84 (Tai Po). The situation is similar to that of the previous POA cycle. The Discretionary Places Quota and Provisional Number of Places for Central Allocation for POA 2015 totalled 24 350 and 27 301 respectively. Details of the number of relevant places of individual school nets have already been set out in the two afore-mentioned Lists.
On the other hand, it is not the practice of the EDB to publicise the remaining discretionary places quota of public sector primary schools in each allocation cycle. The main reason is that the allocation of P1 places is subject to adjustment based on the actual demand. This is to ensure adequate provision of school places to meet the demand on one hand, and to avoid unnecessary speculations and labelling on individual schools on the other.
(2) In each POA cycle, we will gauge stakeholders' views on POA arrangements for in-depth deliberations with the Primary One Admission Committee with a view to enhancing the relevant arrangements.
The arrangements under POA, including the Points System of the Discretionary Places Admission stage, have been formulated after extensive consultation and have balanced the concerns of different stakeholders. We understand that the Points System may not fully meet the aspirations of all stakeholders. Yet, its objective is in line with the afore-mentioned guiding principle underpinning the POA system. While the POA seeks to address needs of different parents, it allows schools to retain a certain degree of autonomy in student admission so as to maintain their characteristics. We do not have any plans in the meantime to revise the Points System, including the weighting of the criteria of
"first-born child" and "applicant child of the right age".
Note 1: Public sector P1 places refer to the places of government and aided primary schools.
Note 2: In line with the afore-mentioned guiding principle underpinning POA, schools are not allowed to use children's ability including academic results (such as kindergartens attended or certificates/awards from extra-curricular learning activities) as a selection criterion at the Discretionary Places Admission stage.
Note 3: Starting from POA 2014, the Choice of Schools List includes the "Choice of Schools List for Central Allocation" for applicant children residing in the school net and the
"Choice of Schools List for Central Allocation (For Applicant Children Residing in the Mainland)" for applicant children residing in the Mainland.
Ends/Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Issued at HKT 13:10
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