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Following is a question by the Hon Yeung Sum and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (January 5):

Question :

Will the Government inform this Council of the following in respect of each school district:

(a) the numbers of students and classes in each grade of kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools in September 2004;

(b) the respective numbers of secondary and primary schools and the total numbers of standard classrooms;

(c) the respective numbers of whole-day government and subsidized secondary and primary schools; and

(d) the estimated respective numbers of children who will be in the age groups for Primary One and Secondary One in 2008/09 and in the two subsequent school years?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) Provisional number of students and classes in each grade of kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools as at September 2004 are provided in Appendix 1 (Tables 1A to 3B).

(b) Number of secondary and primary schools and number of registered classrooms as in 2004 are given in Appendix 2. Table 1 shows the statistics on number of schools, covering all secondary day schools and primary schools (but excluding special schools and skills opportunity schools). Since information on number of registered classrooms is not available for some of the private schools, the statistics on number of schools and registered classrooms listed in Table 2 only cover schools for which the required information is available.

(c) Please refer to Appendix 3 for the respective number of whole-day government and aided secondary and primary schools as at October 2004.

(d) Based on the latest population distribution projections provided by the interdepartmental Working Group of Population Distribution Projections, the projected number of school-age children (aged 6) for Primary One in each district in 2008/09 and in the two subsequent school years are given in Table 1A in Appendix 4. It should be noted that the actual number of Primary One students in each district depends on parental choice, the prevailing demand in each of the school nets as well as under-aged and over-aged students. As such, the actual numbers may be different from the projected figures.

As the planning for secondary school places is on a territory-wide basis, the projected number of school-age children for Secondary One by district is not available. Based on the latest territorial population projections provided by the Census and Statistics Department, the territorial-wide (all districts) projected number of school-age children (aged 12) for Secondary One in 2008/09 and in the two subsequent school years are given in Table 1B in Appendix 4.

Ends/Wednesday, January 5, 2005

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