But the school’s incorporated management committee, which comprises parents, alumni, teaching staff and its principal, said on Monday that the sponsoring body had not shared the plan with the organisation before the announcement.
“Any decision the Confucian Academy makes regarding the way forward for the school should first be approved by the managers of the school’s incorporated management committee,” it wrote in a statement, adding the Education Bureau should step in.
A bureau spokeswoman said on Monday night it had met the school sponsoring group and principals on multiple occasions, adding it had earlier received the notification from the supervisor about the intended closure.
“However, disputes arose between the two parties during the discussion and they failed to reach consensus on the transition plan, causing the school’s management to fail,” she said.
She added the bureau would appoint managers to join the school’s incorporated management committee to assist it to perform its duties and ensure the school properly carried out teaching and was satisfactorily managed.
The move came hours after the school management committee, which is the highest authority in terms of governance, said it had been kept in the dark and deeply regretted that the Confucian Academy had unilaterally and hastily released information to the media about the closure of the school.
Poon Suk-han, the school principal, said at a press conference attended by other school managers on Monday that the school supervisor, William Tong Wai-lun, wanted to sign a contract with an organisation to turn the school into a private one that would charge expensive school debentures.
She said her request to the supervisor to convene a meeting over the plan was rejected.
“We only formally knew in June from him that he wanted to cease the school operation,” Poon said.
Tong said in a statement that he understood the decision to close the school would have an impact on parents and teachers, adding he had tried to meet staff and parents but in vain.
“We hope to communicate with parents and teachers as soon as possible,” Tong said, adding he would not further respond to the incident.
The sponsoring body said on Saturday that it had set aside HK$6 million for the handouts, which were intended to “ease the burdens” departing students placed on parents by covering the cost of new uniforms and learning materials.
It also promised free tutorial classes for up to three years if students switched before the start of the next academic year.
The 60-year-old institution would also stop admitting Primary One students for 2025-26, the body added.
The remaining students in Primary Five and Six would finish their studies at the school, it said.
“It is an indisputable truth that the number of students will fall precipitously,” it wrote on Saturday.
“According to the government’s latest estimate, the number of Primary One students in Wong Tai Sin will fall below 2,000 and there will be only 1,500 Primary One students in 2027.
“Faced with this dire situation, the Confucian Academy assessed the chance of being not allowed again to operate Primary One subsidised class is not low.”
The primary school earlier failed to secure subsidies to run Primary One classes after it was unable to enrol the necessary students.
The school also spent more than HK$1 million to run a single private Primary One class under a survival plan approved by education authorities, before managing to secure a subsidised one for the coming school year.
But the body said it hoped to move away from relying on subsidies and become a private school in the long term, adding it had initially planned to meet parents before announcing the move but was still searching for a “suitable venue” to convene a meeting.
The school currently has 90 pupils studying at Primary One to Four levels, more than 80 Primary Five to Six students and 19 taking the private Primary One class.
More than 20 Primary One students are expected to join the school when the next academic year starts in September.
