Proposal to move over 300 pupils from Hong Kong’s Rosaryhill school ‘gets nod’

Hong Kong education authorities have given the green light to a proposal to transfer hundreds of pupils from an aided Catholic school facing closure to one run by the diocese next year provided no extra resources are involved, the Post has learned.

At least half of the teachers at Rosaryhill Secondary School in Mid-Levels could be retained under the proposal, a Catholic diocese official told parents.

Rosaryhill’s sponsoring body, the Dominican Missions, sought help from the diocese last month, with more than 300 students affected by its plan to close the school in the 2025-26 academic year and to stop admitting new pupils in 2024.

Sources on Monday said Joseph Kung Kwong-pui, the diocese’s episcopal delegate for education, told parents at a weekend meeting that church officials met Dominican Missions priests on September 19 to discuss several options.

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The insiders said Kung told parents on Saturday that he had raised the idea of transferring all students currently in Form One to Form Five to Yu Chun Keung Memorial College No 2 (YCK2) in Pok Fu Lam next September.

That was one of the options the Dominican Missions agreed to.

Representatives of the diocese and government-aided Rosaryhill school then met the Education Bureau, which gave the plan the nod provided no extra resources were involved.

The sources said a bureau official told the diocese it would not be entitled to more than HK$1 million (US$128,000), which schools planning mergers could receive.

Rosaryhill students wrote an open letter to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu last Wednesday, pleading for a review of the decision to close the school and asking for a new campus.

Lee on Monday said he had told the secretary for education to handle the school’s closure proposal properly.

“I know the school sponsoring body wants to stop running the school out of its own will, which is not the wish of the Education Bureau,” he said.

Lee said he had asked the bureau to follow a few principles when handling the school’s case.

They included that students’ learning opportunities must be guaranteed, the sponsoring body should maintain communication and discussions with pupils and parents, and education authorities should give full assistance to students who wanted to find school places.

Parents at the meeting were told YCK2 was the only school that could absorb more than 300 students from Rosaryhill in one go, and that half of its student population was non-Chinese, similar to the latter.

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Kung said at the meeting the option he suggested could result in more than 20 or half of the Rosaryhill teachers being retained, and those taking care of special education needs students would be given priority. More elective subjects could also be offered to students under this proposal.

A final decision will be made on the school after parents’ views are solicited.

“We already offered our helping hand, and the bishop [Stephen Chow Sau-yan] already said if parents find this proposal unacceptable, we will withdraw it,” a meeting attendee quoted Kung as saying.

The Post has approached the diocese for comment.

Apart from this option, parents could also choose to transfer lower-form students from the school in phases while those in senior forms could remain until the campus closed, or join the central allocation after completing Form Three.

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But Kung told parents these two options would make more teachers jobless and give students a slim chance to study in a school with their preferred subjects.

A parent who attended the meeting accused Kung of “emotional blackmail” by stressing that parents should make a decision in the interests of all students.

“There is no reason for Form Four to Six students to switch to YCK2 as they like the campus, they can stay until the school closes down,” the parent said.

A spokeswoman for the bureau said it would continue to pay attention to the school’s situation but did not comment on the proposal.