Letters | Hong Kong’s international schools are alive and well

Readers discuss the city’s changing international school landscape, and the naming of pandas

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Pupils return to an international school on April 19, 2022, the day in-person classes resumed after being suspended by the city’s government due to the fifth wave of Covid-19. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:30am, 4 Oct 2024

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I refer to “Hong Kong public schools see ‘crazy’ surge in number of applications from mainland Chinese pupils”(August 25). It’s not only Hong Kong’s public schools that are seeing a “crazy” surge in applicants from mainland China. International school demographics are shifting dramatically as well.

Take Hong Kong International School, which has traditionally styled itself as the city’s premier provider of “American-style education”. HKIS has now rolled out a “dual-language immersion” programme in Mandarin and English for its changing student body.

HKIS has no problem filling its classrooms. The question is: with whom? I am sure the same question is being asked at French International School, Canadian International School and Australian International School, among others.

Some schools were already well-positioned to take advantage of the surge in mainland Chinese applicants. Since its founding in 2003, the Independent Schools Foundation has sought to foster an environment “deeply rooted in Chinese culture” and these roots are reflected in the fact that ISF primary school pupils spend 50-70 per cent of their instructional time learning in Mandarin.

Likewise, Chinese International School has been able to navigate the tides with only minor tweaks. With its “Vision ’33” strategic plan, the school is doubling down on a commitment to the Greater Bay Area and seeking “partnerships with schools, universities, laboratories, companies and other organisations in Shenzhen that will form an ecosystem of possibilities” for its pupils.

Finally, on social media platform Xiaohongshu, users call German Swiss International School the “god school”. Why? GSIS consistently posts eye-popping average International Baccalaureate diploma programme scores of over 40 (out of 45 possible points). These results place it not only at the top of the Hong Kong international school world but also near the top of the world, period.