Directly-funded schools recently submitted tuition fee applications for the new academic year to the Education Bureau, and the authorities replied to the enquiry that as of the 18th of this month, 49 (61%) of directly-funded schools had received applications for tuition fee adjustment. Compared to the same period last year, 48% of applications were submitted, an increase of 13 percentage points. Among them, the primary school affiliated to the traditional famous school Ba Cui Boys' College plans to increase the tuition fee by 14% to 53,140 yuan in the new school year; St. Paul's co-educational secondary school and its affiliated primary schools apply for a price increase of about 7%, and the tuition fee for the next school year may exceed <>,<> yuan.

49 directly funded schools applied for tuition fee increases 31 tuition fees remained unchanged

There are 71 directly subsidised schools in Hong Kong, including 9 secondary and primary schools, which have submitted their application for tuition fee adjustment to the Education Bureau before this Sunday. The authorities indicated that 49 directly funded schools had received notices for tuition fee increases and 31 had applied for no tuition fee adjustment, and the applications would be processed in accordance with the established procedures to complete the approval process and notify the schools of the results before the start of the new academic year.

St. Paul's co-educational secondary school applies for a 10% tuition fee increase for the next school year. (Profile picture)

The tuition fee of the primary school affiliated to Dioche Boys' College is $46,210, with a proposed increase of $6,930 for the new school year, an increase of 14%. Dioche Boys College applies for an additional 10% tuition fee of $57,830 per annum. St. Paul's Co-educational Secondary School and its affiliated primary school year will apply for a 10% tuition fee increase of $72,400 and $70,700 respectively for the next school year. Kai Si Secondary School applied for a 3.6% increase, with a provisional tuition fee of $90,290 for the next school year. St. Paul's College replied to the enquiry that there will be no price increase for the new academic year, and it will remain at $10,350 for the whole year.

According to the Education Bureau, when schools submit applications for fee increases, directly funded schools are required to submit a budget and sufficient justification. During the approval process, the authorities will carefully review the financial budget submitted by the school and the rationale for adjusting the tuition fee, determine the consultancy work required by the school, and allocate not less than 10% of the total tuition fee income for tuition fee waiver or scholarship as required to ensure that students' learning will not be affected by family financial hardship.

About 480 kindergartens participating in the kindergarten education program applied for tuition fee increases for the next school year. (Profile picture)

64% of subsidized kindergartens apply for tuition fee increase and 33% tuition fee remains unchanged

The EDB also pointed out that as of mid-May this year, about 5 of the about 750 kindergartens participating in the Kindergarten Education Scheme had submitted tuition fee proposals for the 740/2023 school year, of which about 24 (480%) applied for a tuition fee increase and about 64 (250%) had their tuition fees unchanged.

For non-kindergarten kindergartens, about 33 kindergartens applied for tuition fee increases for the next school year, 140 applied for a tuition fee reduction and the remaining 1 applied for a tuition fee reduction. According to the Education Bureau, as the operation mode of kindergartens is diverse, the operating costs and expenses of each kindergarten are different, and individual schools will adjust their tuition fees according to the actual operating conditions, and the Government has been improving or adding new funding in response to the development and operational needs of the industry to support the sustainable development of kindergartens in various aspects.

Direct tuition must be expensive? There are free tuition fees and tuition fees of more than 6,440 kindergartens applying for tuition fee increases for the next academic year, 38 directly funded schools applying for adjustment The Education Bureau is under review