Hong Kong School Directory

There are about 3594 schools in Hong Kong. We have compiled the following catalogues according to their catagory and district. It is convenient for you to consult and learn more about the distribution of schools in Hong Kong.

School District

Kowloon City (332)

Sha Tin (292)

Eastern (292)

Yuen Long (283)

Kwun Tong (249)

Tuen Mun (245)

Kwai Tsing (224)

Sai Kung (215)

Sham Shui Po (191)

North (176)

Wong Tai Sin (168)

Southern (150)

Tai Po (146)

Yau Tsim Mong (138)

Central And Western (136)

Tsuen Wan (129)

Islands (128)

Wan Chai (99)

Shum Shui Po (1)

School Catagory

Kindergartens (1543)

Kindergarten-cum-child Care Centres (757)

Aided Primary Schools (429)

Aided Secondary Schools (362)

Aided Special Schools (152)

Private Primary Schools (71)

Direct Subsidy Scheme Secondary Schools (62)

Private Secondary Schools (Day/Evening) (46)

International Schools (Primary) (39)

Government Primary Schools (34)

Government Secondary Schools (31)

International Schools (Secondary) (24)

Direct Subsidy Scheme Primary Schools (23)

English Schools Foundation (Primary) (11)

English Schools Foundation (Secondary) (8)

Caput Secondary Schools (2)

Profile of Kindergartens and Kindergarten-cum-Child Care Centres

Registration
Parents should choose kindergartens or kindergarten-cum-child care centres registered with the Education Bureau (EDB). In this regard, all registered schools should display at a prominent place in the school premises the certificate of registration issued by EDB, specifying the name and location of the school. Parents may also note that the kindergartens or kindergarten-cum-child care centres registered with EDB will have to include in their advertisement or publicity materials the registration number assigned by EDB.

Admission
In Hong Kong, kindergartens are privately run and cater for children between the age of 3 and 6. Some kindergartens operate with an attached child care centre to provide caring services for children aged below 3 as well (i.e. kindergarten-cum-child care centres). Non-Chinese speaking children are encouraged to study in kindergartens or kindergarten-cum-child care centres which adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction so that they can integrate into the local community and master the Chinese language as early as possible. Enquiries about the admission details may be made to the schools direct. Parents may also call or visit any one of the four Regional Education Offices of EDB and the Joint Office for Kindergartens and Child Care Centres for enquiries on kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres respectively:

Medium of Instruction
The medium of instruction adopted by most of the kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres is Chinese, which is the mother tongue of most children.

Facilities and Environment
Kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres should provide a safe and hygienic learning environment with adequate space and facilities so that children can play and learn in a pleasant manner.

Fees and Charges
School fees, meal charges for whole-day classes, registration fees (school place reservation fees) and application fees to be charged by a kindergarten or kindergarten-cum-child care centre should be approved by EDB. Schools are required to display the fees certificate and relevant approval letter(s) at a prominent place in the school premises.

All the necessary expenses relating to teaching and school operation should be chargeable to government funds or covered by the school fees without any additional charges. The expenses include:

Salaries (including payment for supply teachers), provident fund, mandatory provident fund, long service payment/severance payment of teaching and supporting staff employed
Rent and management fees, rates and government rent for the kindergarten premises
Furniture and equipment for school and education purposes
Teaching aids such as library books, reference materials, and worksheets for teachers and students
Expenses on repairs, maintenance and improvement works of the kindergarten premises including installation of air-conditioners, double-glaze windows and exhaust fans, maintenance contract, inspection fees for maintaining fire, gas, electrical installation and building safety
Water and electricity (including air-conditioning) charges, telephone line, fax line and internet service charges
Cleaning fees (including cleaning contract and the provision of cleaning facilities to students)
Expenses on printing, paper, teachers’ stationery and other consumables for teaching activities
Postage charges and publications
Insurance premium and expenses on first aid and fire safety equipment
Audit fees and other service charges in connection with school administration
Transportation fees for school administration purposes
Expenses on regular learning activities for all students, conducted either inside or outside the school premises (these should include expenses for birthday parties, graduation ceremony, school outing, picnics and visits)
Items such as student handbooks, profiles, student portfolios, graduation certificates and identity cards, etc. which are necessary for the operation of the school
Other expenses directly related to teaching activities, school operation and maintenance of the standard of education service for educational purposes

(Note: Kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres need not charge all of the above items.)

The approved ceiling of application fee for admission is $40. The approved ceilings of registration fee are $970 (half-day session) and $1,570 (whole-day session). Collections of the above fees exceeding the approved ceilings require the prior approval of EDB. Kindergartens must refund the registration fee to any student/child who pays the registration fee and subsequently takes up the school place within the first month of the school year.

Kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres should observe the following rules when selling school items or providing paid services (paid items) to students:

Schools should inform parents in writing that acquisition of such items or services is entirely voluntary.
Schools are required to list out clearly the charges and quantity of each item so that parents can select the items or services required.
Schools should avoid charging parents in one lump-sum for the whole package of items or services covering the whole school year so that parents may choose to replenish the items or continue using the services in the middle of the year.
The items to be sold or services to be provided should be directly related to the learning and teaching activities.
Schools should set down proper arrangements for returning goods or refunding.
Schools should not generate profit from the sale of textbooks.
The profit limit of other items should not exceed 15% of the cost.

Permitted Accommodation and Admission
Kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres are required to display at a prominent place in each classroom (kindergartens) / the school premises (kindergarten-cum-child care centres) a notice specifying the maximum number of pupils permitted in that area and should not allow accommodating pupils exceeding the permitted maximum number in that area.

Curriculum Planning
The curriculum goals of a kindergarten or kindergarten-cum-child care centre should be formulated in accordance with the kindergarten education policies of Hong Kong and children’s developmental traits or characteristics. The curriculum should enable children to develop positive learning attitudes and good living habits as well as to foster a holistic and balanced development. In devising the curriculum, the following concerns should be considered:

Children’s mother-tongue language should be used as the medium of instruction.
Child-centred is the core-value and so learning activities should be organised to cater for children’s abilities, interests and needs.
Children should learn through play in a balanced daily schedule.
Learning activities should cater for the diversity of children and children’s whole-person development in ethical, intellectual, physical, social and aesthetic aspects.
Children should have daily physical, music and arts activities.
Children of nursery class should not be asked to write.
Children should not be asked to do mechanical copying exercises and drills on calculation.
Children should not be asked to rote-learn English spelling.
Dictation, test or examination should not be used for assessing children’s learning performance.

Requirement of Teacher to Pupil Ratio and Kindergarten Teacher Professional Qualifications
In order to enhance the quality of kindergarten education, with effect from the 2003/04 school year, the teacher to pupil ratio for all kindergarten levels should at least be 1:15. As from the 2004/05 school year, all kindergartens are required to employ 100% Qualified Kindergarten Teachers for the required teaching staff establishment, based on the above teacher to pupil ratio. Starting from the 2012/13 school year, kindergartens joining the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme should employ sufficient number of teachers possessing the Certificate in Early Childhood Education (C(ECE)) qualifications based on the teacher to children ratio of 1:15. Starting from the 2017/18 school year, the requirement in teacher to pupil ratio for kindergartens joining the kindergarten education scheme will be raised from the current 1:15 (including the principal) to 1:11 (principal not included) so as to allow teachers more capacity to cater for the diverse needs of students, engage in curriculum development, lesson planning, professional development, communication with parents, etc.

Admission Age of Kindergartens
With effect from the 2001/02 school year, in addition to admitting children aged three years or above, kindergartens of which their school year starts in August or September may also admit children who have attained the age of two years and eight months before 1 September of the school year of admission to the kindergarten nursery classes. For example, if a child was born on or before 31 December 2015, kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres of which their school year starts in August or September of 2018 may admit the child to the nursery class.

The Kindergarten Education Scheme
Starting from the 2017/18 school year, the Government has implemented the kindergarten education scheme (the Scheme). Kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres joining the Scheme should be non-profit-making (NPM), offering a full local curriculum and pass the Quality Review. For the 2018/19 school year, the school fee ceilings for half-day classes and whole-day/long whole-day classes are set at $10,100 and $26,250 per student per annum respectively.

For details of the Scheme, you may visit the EDB webpage at
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/preprimary-kindergarten/free-quality-kg-edu/index.html
or call 2891 0088.

Quality Assurance
The Quality Assurance Framework for kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres has been started from the 2007/08 school year onwards, building on the ground work of the set of performance indicators for the assessment of the quality of education in schools. Promoting the continuous school development and enhancing the quality assurance function, schools will continue to conduct School Self-evaluation and will undergo Quality Review by EDB.

Harmonisation of Pre-primary Services
After the harmonisation of kindergartens and child care centres with effect from 1 September 2005, some 400 child care centres have been converted to kindergarten-cum-child care centres. One-stop services are provided to operators/parents by the Joint Office for Kindergartens and Child Care Centres set up by EDB and the Social Welfare Department. Apart from providing education services to children aged three to six, kindergarten-cum-child care centres also provide care services to children aged below three. Parents may refer to the details on child care services in the Profile. Detailed information on harmonisation of pre-primary services is available on EDB webpage at
http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/edu-system/preprimary-kindergarten/harmonisation-of-preprimary-services/index.html.

Reading Notes

The web version of the Profile provides information of all operating kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres registered with the Education Bureau (EDB) and operating in the 2018/19 school year.

The Profile contains information of schools kept by EDB, including school name, address, telephone and fax numbers, student category, total number of permitted accommodation, non-profit-making/private independent status, approved school fees, number of students, number of teachers and their qualification, teacher to pupil ratio and whether operating child care services for children aged below 3. It also contains information provided by schools, including names of supervisor and principal, school founding year, school website, school facilities, curriculum details, school characteristics, major paid items reference price, monthly salary range and working experience of principal and teaching staff and school expenditure information. However, schools not joining the kindergarten education scheme (the Scheme) could provide such information optionally.

Schools will be responsible for the accuracy of information provided by them.

Some schools may have two records in the Profile if they are offering both local and non-local curriculum courses.

Please note the following points when reading the Profile:

Eligibility for Government Subsidy under the Scheme

It states whether the school is eligible for joining the Scheme in the 2018/19 school year. Schools joining the Scheme should be of non-profit-making status, offer a full local curriculum and pass the Quality Review. Classes/courses eligible for government subsidy under the Scheme as stipulated in EDB’s approval letter are the proper records.

Non-Profit-Making Status

Non-profit-making school refers to the school being granted exemption from taxes by the Inland Revenue Department under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance.

Professional Qualification of Teaching Staff

For every kindergarten principal/teacher, only one professional qualification most relevant to the job has been counted. The priorities are Certificate in Early Childhood Education or above, Qualified Kindergarten Teachers, other teacher trainings, Qualified Assistant Kindergarten Teachers and others. Other teacher trainings include Postgraduate Certificate/Diploma in Education, degree in education, Teacher Certificate. Others include teachers under training and untrained teachers.

Permitted Accommodation

‘Total No. of Permitted Accommodation of Classrooms in Use’ means the total number of school places provided by a school in the morning and/or afternoon sessions.

Quality Review: Result and Report

All schools joining the Scheme are required to undergo Quality Review (QR) for quality assurance purpose and only local non-profit-making kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres meeting the prescribed quality standards under the QR framework are eligible for continuing to join the Scheme. There are three categories:

‘Meeting the prescribed standards’: means that the school has met the prescribed standards and is eligible to join the Scheme.

‘Not meeting the prescribed standards’: means that the school has not met the prescribed standards and will not be eligible to join the Scheme.

‘Report not available’: means that QR has not yet been conducted / completed.

School Fees

The table of ‘Annual Fees’ in the Profile shows the approved school fees for the 2018/19 school year. For schools joining the Scheme, the amount of school fee to be paid by parents after deduction of government subsidy is shown. For the 2018/19 school year, based on the amount of basic half-day unit subsidy, the school fee ceilings for half-day and whole-day/long-whole-day classes are set at $10,100 and $26,250 pspa respectively.
Even if approved school fees of different levels are listed in the ‘Annual Fees’ table, it does not necessarily mean that these levels will be operated by the school. Parents should approach the school direct to see if the school will operate these level(s).

Paid Items

The Profile provides information on the reference price for major paid items provided by schools. Parents may consult schools about the details of other paid services provided and exercise discretion as to whether to acquire these items elsewhere or not.

Enquiries about individual kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres may be directed to the Regional Education Offices and the Joint Office for Kindergartens and Child Care Centres respectively. If you need detailed information, please approach the school direct.

A limited number of printed copies of the Profile will be available for parents’ reference at Regional Education Offices of EDB, Home Affairs Enquiry Centres of Home Affairs Department, Maternal and Child Health Centres of Department of Health, Integrated Service Centres of Social Welfare Department and public libraries.

Hong Kong School List