The best primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong have also begun to rob people all over the world.

Yesterday, a Hong Kong primary school students fire all over the network.

July 7 is the day when the Hong Kong Secondary One allocation list was released. A little boy with glasses, after learning that he was admitted to the traditional school of his love, Kowloon Wah Yan College, was so excited to the camera that he said, "I can't believe my own strength. I can actually enter Kowloon Wah Yan Middle School! 」

Then he raised his hands and jumped up and down, repeatedly shouting "Super Invincible Happy", and finally simply humming "Happy! Happy! Happy!」.

This video instantly flashed the screen, and everyone was hit by his pure happiness overflowing the screen.

He himself said that he had to cram for one and a half hours each for Chinese and English three days a week, and he had to review every day. Such days were "hard but worthwhile 」. When the effort really materialized into positive feedback, that kind of heartfelt ecstasy,It is a peak experience that cannot be replaced by any material reward.。

■ It is not easy for Hong Kong children to enter famous schools, and the sincere emotions of the children at the assignment site are also very contagious.

But at the same time happy for him, as a parent, my heart also raised another layer of curiosity:

A child who just graduated from primary school and was admitted to a middle school, why would he be so excited as if he had experienced a great hardship? Is it really so difficult to enter a good junior high school in Hong Kong? And if it is really so difficult,The recent "Hong Kong K12 elite schools are robbing people from all over the world" signal, is it an opportunity for our mainland families?

With these questions, we did some research.

How hard is it to get into a good junior high school in Hong Kong?

The competition for further studies in Hong Kong is not at all easier than in the Mainland,Even more "invisible" in some aspects 」。

Take this year's list, which made primary school students cry and laugh, for example, a total of more than 48000 students took part in the allocation in 2026. The overall satisfaction rate of the first three volunteers reached 95%, and the satisfaction rate of the first volunteer was 84%.

The number looks very beautiful, but the "satisfaction rate" is high, does not mean "into the school" is easy, because the vast majority of children's volunteers, has long been the reality of the "calibration.

The one that really decides fate,It is the band classification that everyone in Hong Kong understands but is not written on the surface.

Although it is not an official division, Hong Kong parents almost judge the quality of schools according to this standard: all students in Hong Kong are roughly divided into three grades according to their academic performance, with the top 33% being Band1, the middle being Band2 and the rest being Band3.

When a child is promoted to the sixth grade, the Education Bureau will assign the child of the same grade to the school of the corresponding grade according to the Banding of the "test" score. A secondary school that enrolls Band1 students for many years is called Band1 Secondary School.

Within Band1, parents are subdivided into Band1A, 1B and 1C according to the entrance data. How big is the gap?

The college acceptance rate of ordinary Band1 schools is about 40%, whileBand1A has an acceptance rate of over 90%,The 16 top candidates in the DSE exam in 2025 are all from Band1A school.

The problem is that there are very few pits in good schools.

The acceptance rate of popular Band1 schools is basically no more than 5%It is common for dozens of people to rob a degree.The little boy who cried and shouted "I can't believe my strength" was admitted to the Kowloon Huaren School, which is such an old Band1 school.

You can probably understand now why his ecstasy was so real.

For mainland children, the threshold has to be stacked again: Hong Kong courses are taught in traditional Chinese characters, Cantonese and English, and test questions and classroom culture need to be adapted.

The elimination rate of interviews in prestigious schools is higher, basically including oral tests in Chinese and English, and some also need group interviews and even parent interviews.

Take the famous diocesan boys' college as an example. in its enrollment standard, only 60% of the students have academic achievements, while the rest are composed of extracurricular activities (20%), interviews (15%) and other factors (5%, such as father and brother are alumni).

In a word,Hong Kong's good junior high school is really difficult to enter.。

What do parents squeeze their heads to do?

To answer this question, we must first understand the types of primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. Schools in Hong Kong are broadly divided:Government schools, aided schools, directly funded schools, private schools and international schools。

Government and aided schoolsMainly rely on government funding, curriculum, enrollment, language are more localized, Cantonese teaching is not friendly to non-local students;Private and International SchoolsIt is suitable for foreign families, but the tuition is expensive, and many international schools mainly serve foreign children, with limited capacity and high threshold.

And this round is the most discussedDirect-funded schools, which happens to be stuck in the middle, is also the most desirable category for Hong Kong families.

Direct funding is the abbreviation for "Direct Subsidy Scheme Schools. On the one hand, it receives government subsidies, and on the other hand, it has greater autonomy than ordinary government schools: it can design its own courses, hire teachers, decide on some enrollment methods, and charge tuition fees to provide richer courses and facilities.

It can be said that,It is a combination of "public resources and private flexibility."。

And the real scarcity of directly funded elite schools,Is its "can go in and out 」：

These schools are not only the export of Hong Kong's local studies (docking with the eight major universities in Hong Kong), but also international courses such as IB and A- Level (sprinting to Britain, America, Australia and Canada). In other words, after the child goes in,You can either go abroad, apply overseas, or collect, stay in Hong Kong, or even return to the mainland.

This kind of flexibility can not be given by pure local schools or pure international schools.

It is not as far away as Britain and the United States, as narrow as Singapore, and not as completely cut off from local paths as pure international schools. This kind of "one body, many ways out" education configuration is the place where Hong Kong education has poked the middle class in the mainland most in recent years.

■ 10 direct-funded primary schools

■ 38 Direct Capital Middle School

Hong Kong's elite schools snatch primary students from all over the world

On December 11, 2025, the Hong Kong Education Bureau sent a letter to all directly funded schools in Hong Kong, officially launching the "direct funding expansion" plan.

In other words, Hong Kong is pushing the four words "studying in Hong Kong" all the way from the university stage to junior high school and primary school,Directly began to "rob" small students。

Why did the first batch start with direct capital? After reading the above paragraph, you will understand that it is its "public resources and private flexible" system genes that make it the most suitable for undertaking this batch of new students.

there are 78 directly funded schools in hong kong,A total of 48 batches of expansion were made this time.There are 38 secondary schools and 10 primary schools.

The list is full of ruthless characters: secondary schools include Diocesan Boys' College, Diocesan Girls' College, St. Paul's Boys and Girls High School, Yinghua College, St. Paul's School, etc. Primary schools include Wang Jinhui Primary and Secondary School, Affiliated School of Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong University Alumni Association Primary School, Po Leung Cuk Lam Man Can English Primary School, etc.

Expansion means directly expanding the class size. The upper limit of each class in direct-funded primary schools will be increased from 33 to 37, and that in secondary schools will be increased from 41 to 45, with a maximum of 4 more places per class.

The point is,These new places,It is reserved for non-local students on student visas.。

At the same time, the course ratio has also been liberalized.

Of the 38 expanded secondary schools, 9 offer IB and 14 offer IAL or A- Level. After the policy adjustment, the proportion of students enrolled in non-local courses can be increased to 49% at most.

In addition, the expansion also binds degrees to dormitories,Direct-funded schools that require dormitories to reserve at least 50% of the places for non-local students.。

So why is Hong Kong suddenly so active?mainly because,Not enough local kids.。

In March this year, the Hong Kong Education Bureau issued a class opening letter to all primary schools in Hong Kong. Among them, 15 primary schools were "assigned zero classes", that is, insufficient enrollment and inability to start primary one. This is not common in the history of Hong Kong education.

Even worse is kindergarten. According to the data released by the Hong Kong Education Bureau last year, the number of kindergartens fell below 1000 for the first time, leaving only 980,is a new low in the last five academic years。

Secondary schools are also under pressure. The secondary school-age population in Hong Kong has dropped from 68300 in 2024 to 58800 in 2025; the Yau Tsim Mong District, where prestigious schools are concentrated, has dropped from about 3000 to 2100, a drop of about 30%.

From the perspective of population structure, enrollment expansion is also imminent.

The number of people born in Hong Kong has declined year by year from the 62000 in 2014 to only about 33000 in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The total fertility rate was once as low as about 0.7, far below the 2.1 replacement level.

No child is born, no child is enrolled, and even the best school has to face empty classrooms.

So this expansion,The essence is the inevitable result of the superposition of population pressure, school operation pressure and city competition pressure in Hong Kong.。

It's a whole chain of talent.

Can we get the bonus?

In other words, families who have obtained Hong Kong status (or dependant status) through high-level talents, talents, professionals, and investment immigrants have better planning; andMainland children born and raised without foreign passports will not be able to eat this wave of expansion dividends.

The purpose of this operation in Hong Kong is also very clear. It is not the mainland children it wants to rob,It's the entire Asian education market.

At the end of March, the council of direct-funded schools led a team to Thailand and Malaysia to recruit students, and also planned to expand to Indonesia, the Philippines, Kazakhstan and other "Belt and Road" countries.

The Chinese community in Southeast Asia is huge and has a natural affinity for Chinese. In the past, their first choice was Singapore, but in recent years, Singapore has not enough degrees and the threshold is high,Hong Kong is trying to catch up with these dissuaded families and seize Singapore's educational niche.

In principle, Hong Kong students under the age of 12 cannot live in school, which means that if they come to study in primary school,The parents must accompany. However, Hong Kong does not have a special accompanying visa. If parents want to accompany them, they must first obtain a Hong Kong status through Gao Cai Tong and excellent talents.

On the other hand, if parents can get Hong Kong status, children will not have to study through this non-local student policy, and the logic will go directly back to the origin.

they can live in secondary school,But the place is limited。

There are less than 10 dormitories in the 78 direct-funded institutions in Hong Kong, which add up to more than 1700 beds, which is a drop in the bucket for the demand for enrollment expansion.

Moreover, Hong Kong does not have a mature host family supervision system like the United Kingdom. How to define the guardianship responsibility is still an unsolved problem.