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Education Question Time
Is there something you ’ re desperate to find out about Hong Kong schools ? Education consultant Ruth Benny is here to help
Q : My child is one-year-old and I ’ ve not applied for any schools yet . Am I too late ; should I panic ? A : Not at all ! Some schools do accept applications from birth but very few take the date of submission into serious consideration . For a child of one , we advise that you plan for primary school ( age four or five ) and work backwards to identify good fit kindergartens . Your child can begin pre-nursery at two-years , so you may want to look at putting in some applications for him / her to start in September 2018 .
Q : I need an affordable international school . Does such a thing exist ? A : Yes , but affordable means different things to different people . For a long time , ESF was deemed affordable . Friends of mine who had children earlier than me were paying around $ 45,000 for primary 10 years ago . Today , I get worried when a client stipulates anything less than $ 140,000 as a ceiling !
By definition , international schools are private schools that do not receive any subsidies from the government . If you ’ re choosing an international school , you are effectively opting out of the free , public schools available to every child legally resident in Hong Kong .
If tuition costs of international schools are prohibitive , look at Direct Subsidy Schools ( DSS ) and local private schools . Your child will need to learn Chinese as early as possible and keep it up .
That being said , I can list a few international primary schools for your consideration ( not an exhaustive list ):
• Delia School of Canada $ 110,000
• ESF * $ 106,500
• French International School $ 106,731 - 109,815 + $ 90,000 ( one-off )
• HKCA Po Leung Kuk School $ 89,800
• Island Christian Academy $ 106,000 + annual levy $ 11,500
• Korean International School $ 100,000
• Japanese International School $ 99,250 + annual levy $ 15,200
• Kiangsu International School $ 76,500
• Rosebud School $ 62,000 + $ 8,000 annual levy
* multiple schools ; apply to the school in your zone according to your address .
Q : Which schools have shorter waitlists ? A : Many parents talk of the dreaded waitlist . Waitlists are not actually as scary as the talk of waitlists .
For most schools , a waitlist doesn ’ t exist until the first round of interviews have been completed for entry level . Three outcomes from an interview are : accepted , waitlisted and rejected .
A minority of schools do operate a waitlist with strict ( ish ) sequencing but , increasingly , the waitpool is taking over . In our opinion , a waitpool makes more sense . A school operating a waitpool will collect all applications during a prescribed period before interviews are scheduled . By some non-scientific method that takes a variety of factors into account , applicants will be selected to be invited to interview . Factors considered include : applicant ’ s English language proficiency ( and that of the parents ); nationality ; gender ; race / ethnicity ; and month of birth . The idea is to create diverse classes of suitable children . Essentially , all international schools are striving for this , except their definition of ‘ suitable ' differs . So , the dreaded waitlist is mostly applicable to late applicants . If you ’ re not late , you need not worry too much about waitlists and waitpools .
Ruth Benny is the founder of Top Schools . She has 19 years ’ experience of the education system in Hong Kong . www . topschools . com . hk If you have a question for Ruth , email playtimes @ ppp . com . hk
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