Fewer Hong Kong teachers left profession last school year, HK$10.1 billion withdrawn from retirement funds
- In 2022-23 school year, 3,334 teachers from both subsidised and grant schools left their roles, accounting for 6 per cent overall decline compared with previous year
- City still needs to ‘wait and see’ potential impact of coming domestic national security legislation on teachers’ turnover rate, lawmaker says
The number of teachers and principals leaving their profession in the last academic year amid an emigration wave in Hong Kong has decreased from its peak, with 3,334 from both subsidised and grant schools withdrawing more than HK$10.1 billion (US$1.3 billion) from two major retirement schemes.
In the 2022-23 academic year, 3,238 teachers from subsidised primary and secondary schools and 96 from grant schools, commonly regarded as the most elite institutions in Hong Kong, left their roles, a drop from 3,432 and 119 respectively in 2021-22 and accounting for a 6 per cent overall decline.
The Education Bureau released Subsidised Schools Provident Fund and Grant Schools Provident Fund annual reports on Tuesday, which showed the number of educators who withdrew their money over the last academic year as a result of retirement, resignation and other reasons.
Teachers cashed out HK$9.74 billion and HK$399 million from the two provident funds in the previous academic year, down from HK$10.2 billion and HK$533 million in 2021-22.
Each teacher took out about HK$3 million on average, according to the Post’s calculations.
Before the emigration wave in 2019 and 2020, about 2,000 teachers quit and cashed out around HK$5.2 billion from the two provident funds each year.
An education sector representative said the city still needed to “wait and see” the potential impact of a coming domestic national security law on teachers’ turnover rate.
