ESF chief: early summer break would harm learning

The head of the English Schools Foundation said on Tuesday that the SAR’s biggest provider of international education would have had immense difficulty providing classes in July and August had the government forced it to follow local schools in taking an early summer break.

Belinda Greer made the comments a day after Education Secretary Kevin Yeung announced that schools following non-local curriculums would be exempted from a requirement to start the summer holidays by mid-March, with classes to resume after Easter until August.

Problems for international schools include the fact that teacher contracts expire in June and that pupils take international, rather than local, exams, Greer said on RTHK’s Hong Kong Today programme. She said forcing an early summer break would have had a significant impact on pupils’ learning.

“Our academic calendar differs from local schools and we do have other operational differences, such as teacher contract arrangements,” she told RTHK’s Janice Wong.

“So, in an international school, teacher contracts are signed according to what would be pre-published school year dates. So our resigning teachers, those leaving Hong Kong, leave at the end of June, and the replacing staff will arrive in early August.

“So it’s really difficult for us to provide what would be full operations in July and August.”

International schools, including the 22 run by ESF, will have to give over their campuses for March’s universal Covid testing exercise.

In his announcement on Monday, Yeung said local kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools would start their summer break between March 7 and 17, depending on their level of preparation.