A government watchdog is scrutinising Hong Kong’s Education Bureau after public concern over its approval process for raising school fees.
The Office of Ombudsman has raised concern that the process is “lax and lacks transparency”. This comes after 147 private and international schools were allowed to raise fees last year, some by as much as 25%.
Ombudsman Connie Lau Yin-hing said it was the bureau’s job to ensure fee increases were reasonable and that schools were not “at liberty to reasonably raise their fees year after year”.
She said the public is concerned that schools can “easily obtain” approval to raise their fees, which is placing a heavy financial burden on parents.
Lau acknowledged that the bureau had a system for evaluating fee increase applications but questioned whether the bureau has a “sufficiently strict” mechanism and proper procedures in place for approving them.
Semi-autonomous, private and international schools can apply to the bureau each year to revise their fees and as of May, 42 schools had made the request.
Education lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen said some schools were trying to increase fees between 10% and 50% in the upcoming academic year.
“There’s a need to look at the criteria the Education Bureau has adopted in approving the fee increase applications,” Ip said.
He criticised international schools that made parents stump up exorbitant sums to secure a place or even just to get an interview during the application process for their children.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said the application assessment system was reviewed regularly and the bureau would cooperate fully with the watchdog’s investigation.
According to Lau, the investigation would cover the bureau’s criteria and procedures for approving fee revision applications and how it regulated the amount collected by schools.
The watchdog would then make recommendations for improvement, reported the South China Morning Post.
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