What is the difference between the new and old system?

At the end of March the EDB provided details of their arrangements for the enrolment of 15/16 school year preschool classes (K1) on the website, with the aim of not having one child taking up multiple placements. The Education Bureau will hold a briefing in May on the “one child, one placement” system. 

What is different about this new system compared to the old system? No doubt the parents will have the following questions :

Under the old system parent look for the kindergarten first then apply for school vouchers; in the new system parents apply for the school voucher before finding a kindergarten. Since Hong Kong parents have always held the belief that “you’ll miss out if you are not at the front of the queue”, I predict that the number of people at the SFAA in July this year applying for school vouchers for their children will increase dramatically. The advice is to prepare to head to the SFAA early.   

Since though kindergartens will distribute an unlimited number of application forms, it means that parents do not have line the streets in queue to get their hands on an application form. Before getting your hopes up, the unlimited application scheme applies only to kindergartens under the school voucher system; private and independent kindergartens still only provide a limited number of application forms. In other words, if parents want to enroll their children into the private or independent kindergarten of their choice then they better be prepared to front the queue. 

Shortened application and interview period. In the old system, applications start in August and September, with interviews taking place between October and December then the announcement of results in January to provide sufficient time for the interviews.

Under the new system the vouchers will be provided in November, so for kindergartens under the school voucher system to receive applications in November and to announcement results in December they will have only eight weeks to complete the entire process. How can the kindergartens get through all the interviews for the respective applicants in such a short period of time? What would be the expected outcome? 

There are three possibilities: The first option will be to draw a ballot, the second option is to select candidates for interview based on the information available, and the third is to rush through the interviews for all applicants. All three options are less than ideal, and the new system encourages parents to ‘Photoshop’ the pictures of their children because it make just make all the difference !

There is a door knocking period that did not exist in the old system. Since the new system requires the results to be published in December and enrolments to be during January 22 to 24, this creates the ‘door knocking’ period when parents can head to their choice of kindergarten to request entry. If they successfully gain a placement, then they can return the school voucher to the school and cancel their placement.

These are the four biggest change to the existing system, and as for the exact details, parents are reminded to attend the briefings held by EDB from May to June that will explain the new arrangement to parents. If there are any issues or questions then these can be raised directly with them for clarification. I hope this ‘one student, one placement’ system will help solve the shortage of placements in Hong Kong, so that parents will be able to rest easy at night!