Friday, June 8, 2012

My letter to CY LEUNG about P1 admissions

It seems my letter to CY Leung on his webpage has somewhat been dust in the internet.
Pressed the submit button - no confirmation at all - even not a feedback on the email I had submitted.
So maybe Mr CY Leung needs to check his IT department - I am afraid my letter never was submitted.
Here now the letter I have sent:
quote
Dear Mr CY Leung,
I am a ****** native living in Hong Kong since almost 15 years. I am a permanent resident - my spouse is Hong Kong born  - our son is almost 6 years old, he can read english since he was 4 years old, he speaks a passable Mandarin & fairly Cantonese. Since more than 9 month we are "labouring" on finding the right PRIMARY 1 school place for our son. Especially very troublesome is all the DSS schools application procedures. My son attended more than 10 interviews in different DSS schools - he "failed"all. As a parents you feel very saddend by this results: Is our son so stupid - this feeling is shared with most of the other parents. My son even refused to go to further interviews & feeling very uncomfortable with that situation. It seems even not 6 year old children must already have a grade of some kind of "professor" - being a child only doesn’t matter. 
Some of these schools allow 2,000 - 3,000 applications, but they have only 150 primary seats. They even conduct 2,000 - 3,000 so-called interviews. Surely the result is for many parents very frustrating - 95% will be rejected. Then there are the "lucky ones" due to whatever reason got admitted to 4 - 5 schools after successful interviews. We know several families being that "lucky". What are they doing ? They register their kid at all schools. They are blocking the seats until the very last minute to be released for the not so lucky ones. This system is very wrong - the Hong Kong Government very much supporting this DSS schools. Why there cannot be a system forcing the parents getting the green light for several schools making a final decision immediately (that should be in November prior to the forthcoming school year). That would take away a lot of burden from the "not so lucky" ones & release some terrible pressure for many families. I personally think that this is a very important part of the Education System (procedures) urgently need to improve here in Hong Kong. We are all very hard working families - the EU debt crisis is putting a deep shadow over HK & China economy - we still have not reached the bottom line. I am afraid it will get more worse in the 3rd & 4th quarter of 2012. Putting all that extra burden like that P1 admission on top - I think this is not good. Many parents / families we know, being friends with sharing the same thoughts.
Best regards ***********
unquote
By the way some of the DSS schools 2nd phase with maybe only half of the seats vacant still accept up to 900 applications - for maybe 60 seats: Application fee for 2nd phase interview = HKD 50:
900 x HKD 50 = HKD 45,000 - not bad under the consideration that out of the 900 (if they attend all) only 60 have the chance at all to get admitted ! They must have some very greedy accountants at this school !

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