News Desk
HONG KONG — About 40 kindergartens in Hong Kong are expected to close by the end of this school year as the city grapples with the impact of its record-low birth rate in 2022, industry leaders have warned.
The sharp decline in births—only 32,500 babies were born that year—has left many preschools struggling to fill seats. Some institutions received as few as four or five applications for Kindergarten One (K1) admissions for the upcoming September intake, raising concerns about their viability.
Education officials have acknowledged the crisis, with Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin suggesting that relocating campuses could be a way for struggling kindergartens to stay afloat. However, operators say the problem runs deeper than location, pointing to an overall demographic shift in the city.
The registration period for K1 spots in subsidized kindergartens ran from January 2 to 4, with schools making extra efforts to attract parents. Yet despite intensified promotional campaigns, the birth rate in 2022 and 2023 remained nearly 40 percent lower than in the years before the city’s social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the city’s population ages and fewer children enter the school system, education officials and kindergarten operators face difficult decisions on how to adapt to a shrinking student pool. For many schools, closure is becoming the only viable option.
