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Yellow
Ribbon Campaign to Stop the Killing
by PTU Executive Committee
The
Irrationality of EMB's School Closure Policy
The
Education and Manpower Bureau has unilaterally made the decision
to order 31 primary schools to stop running Primary One classes
starting from the next academic year due to under-enrolment.
The order means that these schools will be closed within five
years or less. The reason for the"killing' of these schools
is that their number of Primary One applicants has fallen below
the minimum admission quota of 23 by the deadline set by EMB.
The irrationality of the policy is that schools are not allowed
to continue admitting pupils and have to face the"death
penalty' even if there is only one pupil short in a particular
year. Can the EMB be so sure that these schools are not able
to recruit one more pupil in the following years ? What makes
the policy of school closure more absurd is that many of these
schools have been granted funds, over hundreds of millions of
dollars, to make large-scaled school improvements under the
School Improvement Project (SIP) . Is it a waste of public expenditure
to close these schools while the SIP is in process at the same
time ?
Mobilize
and Protect Our Schools
Some
of these 31 schools have formed a "Joint Action Committee
to Protect Schools' Rights of School Governance and Recruiting
Students". To fight for their rights, they have planned
a "Yellow Ribbon Campaign" to protect their schools
and are appealing to everybody in the education sector to join
in the following actions :
1. Support the "Yellow Ribbon Campaign" and stick
the "Yellow Ribbon Sticker" onto your shirt or lapel
on 26th March,2004 . ( Stickers will be sent to your school
together with the current PTU News. Ask your PTU school representatives
for the stickers.)
2. Come
and join our Rally to protect our schools , details of which
are as follows :
Rally
and Demonstration March
Date : 27th March,2004.
Time : 3 p.m.
Venue : From Edinburg Square, Central
（Outside City Hall, Lower Block）To Government Headquarters ,
Central.
PTU
Demands are as follows :
1. Schools should be given the right to recruit pupils . They
should not be deprived of such a right although the enrolment
may be low in a particular year.
2. Parents' choice should be respected . Pupils should have
the right to study in the school of their parents' choice until
they graduate.
3. The Government should stop building new schools in areas
with a declining birth rate and reassess their policy of school
construction to meet the supply and demand of school places.
Join
our Yellow Ribbon Campaign and Stop the Killing
EMB's
brutality to close schools will go on and there will be more
acts of domination and manipulation in the years to come. For
our children's wellbeing, for the stability of education, for
social justice, please join our Yellow Ribbon Campaign and let
us stop the killing before it comes to your door !
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