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| There are fewer Primary One students in Hong Kong this year |
School has started in Hong Kong with a lot fewer students.
The latest statistic? Seventy -- 70 -- Primary One classes in 66 schools were scrapped for this academic year. Ten of the 70 schools either only had a single Primary One class or none at all.
The numbers were from data compiled from 453 public and government-aided primary schools and shows the number of families who have left permanently, as well as the birth rate continuing to decline. In 2022 it dropped to 32,500, though it rose slightly the following year to 33,200.
Most of this year's Primary One students were born in 2018, when 53,700 were born, but 40,293 have signed up for public school.
"The shrinking student population is still a serious problem for the sector and the number of pupils enrolled in Primary One in the coming years will continue to fall," said Chu Kwok-keung, a school principal and lawmaker representing the education sector.
Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin doesn't deny it, saying that three to four primary and secondary schools would close in the next five years, and she expected the student population to continue to fall.
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