Around 80 per cent of the 234 vacant schools in the past decade were primary schools
JENNIFER.NGO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 November, 2015, 3:23pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 18 November, 2015, 3:23pm
The bureau was urged to keep accurate records of vacant schools so that they might be utilised. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Close to half of all vacated school premises stay empty and unused, with 29 of the 105 empty schools still under the Education Bureau and not returned to the government, an audit report revealed.
Of the 234 vacated schools listed in the bureau’s system set up in 2005, 105 continued to be unused, while another 14 empty schools were not registered in the system, an Audit Commission report stated. The longest period of disuse for any school was 36 years.
Around 80 per cent of the 234 vacant schools in the past decade were primary schools.
Around 79 of these vacated schools received on average HK$19 million per school for school improvement works between 1994 and 2007. But 26 of them were found to have vacated their premises less than five years after renovation, primarily due to a drop in student enrolment.
The report recommended that the bureau review its mechanism for tracking and reviewing vacated schools. The bureau is supposed to maintain a record of all empty schools. It was also recommended to utilise the vacant ones as soon as possible.
The report further recommended that the bureau review how it allocated funds for school improvement work.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1880158/what-classroom-crunch-nearly-half-vacated-hong
