Difficulty: Summiteer (Level 3)
Hong Kong schools have recorded a rise in the number of students for two years in a row. This year, there are about 7,200 more pupils.
The Education Bureau’s data covers all government, aided, private, international and direct subsidy scheme schools at the time of the annual headcount exercise in September 2025.
To find the change in student numbers, the South China Morning Post compared September 2024’s enrolment figures for Kindergarten One to Form Five against those from Kindergarten Two to Form Six a year later. Total student numbers rose from about 733,593 to 740,819 – a 1 per cent increase. The net gain in students for the current school year stood at 7,229 compared with the previous one.
The SCMP found no annual net increases in the 10 years before 2024. The figures saw a net increase in 2024, about a year after the Top Talent Pass Scheme’s launch and the removal of the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme’s quota.
Chu Wai-lam, chairman of the New Territories School Heads Association, said he had seen a recent rise of mainland pupils joining outside the normal admission period. He linked the trend to talent and their children arriving under immigration schemes.
