Seeking better schools

Little commuters

Mainland students wait to cross the border outside the Lo Wu train station in Shenzhen.
Alice Tong


By Charis Ma and Wong Kayu
Chan Kit, 12, and Kwok Tsz Wai, 8, live in Shenzhen
with their mothers. Both are studying at Ta Ku Ling
Ling Ying Public School, a rural primary school in the
closed area in Hong Kong.

“I want to improve my English in this school,” Tsz Wai
said. School life in Hong Kong is more colourful than it
is in Shenzhen, with a greater variety of extra-curricular
activities.

“I can play ballgames after school until the last minute
I get on the school bus, but in Shenzhen pupils leave
at once when the bell rings,” Kit said.

Lower school fees in Hong Kong are another reason to study there.

In Shenzhen, sending a child to primary school costs more than $2,000 per month.

The Education and Manpower Bureau stated that this year there were about 5,000 students who live in Shenzhen but study in Hong Kong. Since Kit and Tsz Wai were born in Hong Kong, they are sent there to enjoy the free and compulsory nine years of education, regardless of the distance.

In Ta Ku Ling Ling Ying Public School, 60 percent of students are Mainlanders.

Ms. Key Wai Yee, school principal, said, “We started admitting students who cross the border for school when the government increased the daily quota of one-way permits to 150 three years ago.

“Although there are both local and mainland students in the school, there is no discrimination and they get along well,” said Ms. Key.

She said the academic achievement and discipline of local and mainland students are more or less the same.

“Children from the Mainland even have a better attitude toward learning, as they treasure the opportunity to be educated,” she said, pointing out that these students are often among the top three in classes.

The school offers tutorials on Saturdays for those who are weak in English. It also organizes a variety of extra-curricular activities to help students adapt to school life.

In addition, the school holds two to three parents’ days in Shenzhen every year.

Although Kit and Tsz Wai enjoy school life in Hong Kong, it is a nuisance to cross the border every day.

“My mum always wakes me up from my dreams!” Kit yelled.

Every morning mothers take their children to Lo Wu train station. After roll call, children line up and start their journey.

Ms. Key said it takes the students about 20 minutes to cross the border, and buses are arranged to transport them to the school then.

“At the beginning of each term, we assign several teachers to help the students cross the border.

The number of teachers is reduced when they get used to the procedures,” Ms. Key said.

Meanwhile, some parents are employed as babysitters to take care of the students.
Accidents happen, however.

“Once a schoolmate was late and he was in such a hurry to catch up to our queue that he ran through the counter without showing his passport,” said Tsz Wai.

Ms. Key said that most people have the misconception that students have to travel a long distance to school, but there are special tunnels for students.

The school gives the Immigration Department a name list in advance, allowing students to pass the control point in a short time.

Ms. Key hopes that the flow at Lo Wu Terminal will become more efficient.

She suggested that the government expand the service at Man Kam To, which is now only a vehicular checkpoint, to include students.

Kit also hopes for changes in the present border crossing procedure.

“I hope the form of passport will change into a card like an Octopus card so we just need to pass the counter with one scan,” said Kit.

With the increasing number of mainland students, some people are worried that schools in the Northern District may not have sufficient resources.

Ms. Key said, “The government subsidizes schools according to the number of classes. So far the resources have been fair enough to the schools.

“What the government should do is improve the efficiency of the control points,” she said.

If a proposal for a 24-hour operation at control centres is put into effect, Ms. Key said, more families will be encouraged to live in Shenzhen, and there may be an increase in cross-border students.

Mr. Yeung Yiu Chung, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, had a similar view.

He said the Education and Manpower Bureau and schools in the Northern District should evaluate the progress of schools and increase the number of places in schools correspondingly.

He also suggested, as a long-term measure, that the government subsidize organizations to run schools in Shenzhen.