 Students and teachers in matchbox schools are bothered by noise generated fromclassrooms on both sides of the corridor. Photos by Parker Zheng / China Daily |
 Students have physical education lesson in covered playground where there are eight largepillars. |
 There is hardly a place big enough to gather all students and teachers together in matchboxschools. |
 Structural damages are dangerous for students and staff of matchbox schools. |
The tiny schools built alongside public housing estates more than 40 years ago are slowlycrumbling. Despite the fact some may present physical danger, the solutions continue to eludeauthorities. Ming Yeung reports.
When students at ELCHK Kwai Shing Lutheran Primary School play basketball, they've had tolearn to dodge, not just opponents, but the eight large pillars that hold up the building. Thecovered playground is the school's only recreation area. Despite the obstructed field of vision,the kids seem agile enough.
This is the area where students have after school activities like cheerleading, rope skipping, etc.The place where they used to play hopscotch, has been overtaken by a small plot of dirt, wherethe kids learn about gardening.
"A simple game like hopscotch for matchbox schools is a luxury," commented Tsui Hei-lai,principal of ELCHK Kwai Shing Lutheran Primary School. "Although we have a coveredplayground, we don't have an outdoor playground. There is no place in our school where wecan gather all students and teachers together." A tuck shop and cafeteria are completely out ofquestion.
The primary school in Kwai Shing falls well below the standards commonly expected in a normalprimary school. It's one of 28 remaining matchbox schools, cuboid and starkly rectangular. Allhave 24 classrooms, six-stories, and all are attached to nearby public housing estates. Eighteenof them are situated in the New Territories. There are nine left in Kowloon. There's one on HongKong Island.
Matchbox schools sprang up between the mid-1960s and 70s on public housing estates, tomake room for the rapid increase in student enrolments back then.
They share in common, bad ventilation, falling masonry, frequently plugged toilets, and on top ofthat, they don't meet fire safety standards. The administration pays out millions of dollars inmaintenance costs, just to hold them together. It has cost the Education Bureau more thanHK$66 million to keep papering over the cracks - with 60 percent of that amount spent since2014.
Education Bureau guidelines specify that primary schools should range from 4,000 to 7,000square meters. From 10 to 14 special rooms should be set aside for music or other activities.Some of the matchbox schools are only 1,000 square meters with no more than two or threespecial rooms. About 100 schools citywide are over 30 years old whose floor spaces are below3,000 square meters.
In April, Lam Tai-fai, chair of the Legislative Council's panel on education, and some lawmakers,joined Under Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, to visit three matchbox schools inKwai Chung to get a firsthand look at the hard realities.
Principal Tsui led the visitors to a room used for speech therapy, education psychology, morningprayer, and meetings with parents. "The situation is most undesirable because there is not muchprivacy here but we don't have space," Tsui said. "We get used to shuffling places from time totime, for different things."
Inadequate facilities
Designed without any consideration of acoustics, students and teachers are bothered by all thenoise generated from classrooms placed on both sides of a central corridor. "Our students reallyhave to concentrate if they're not going to be disturbed by the noise," said Tsui, raising hervoice to compete with the sound of students reciting a Chinese poem in a nearby classroom.The school keeps the fire door open. It's against the law but it improves the ventilation in theotherwise stuffy corridor.
"These schools were barely equipped, much like the early Ford model-T - a vehicle that canprovide basic transportation but nothing more," according to a study called From "Rooftop" to"Millennium": the Development of Primary Schools in Hong Kong since 1945.
Sharing schools' sporting facilities with the residents of the housing estate is common but thatcould be dangerous for the students. There's no way schools can prevent anyone, includingstrangers, from coming into the school.
Ng Woon-ling, headmistress of SRBCEPSA Lee Yat Ngok Memorial School, said the school hasto deal with other problems when facilities are shared in common with the local neighborhood.
"People walk their dogs here and do other things, so on Mondays our staff is busy cleaning up.There is nothing we can do about it," Ng sighed. "We have to place a staff here to keep an eyeon our students."
Structural problems are the most dangerous for students and staff. The principal of CNEC TaTung School, Simon Wong Siu-chiu has watched cement peel off the walls and fall to theground. The original contractors used salt water when the building went up in the 1970s.Pointing to layers of paint on the ceiling, Wong explained the "patchwork" was due to thebursting of steel bars in the concrete. Rows of light pipes have fallen to the floor in the past.Fortunately, no one has been hurt so far. The school has needed emergency maintenanceseveral times over last 45 years.
Chronic problems persist
No matter how frequently the school undertakes maintenance, chronic problems persist.
The walls of stairways are open and decorated with grille panels. The rain pours in and thefloors get slippery. The school is not allowed to cover over the grille panels.
Compared with the "millennium" schools which usually have 24 or 30 standard classrooms, abasketball court, a library, language rooms, special rooms, networked computers and multimediafacilities, students from matchbox schools are denied possibility and space to fully develop theirpotentials, principal Tsui said.
"These problems affect the learning and development of students, and create the need foradditional manpower and require administrative work for the staff," added Tsui.
She hoped the meeting with officials would provide solutions for short, medium and long term formatchbox schools.
"We need extra subsidies for schools to do maintenance work, and we expect there will be atripartite meeting to discuss redevelopment or relocation. In the long run, we hope there will be ablueprint and a timetable for a complete replacement of matchbox schools," Tsui suggested.
After the visits, Lam Tai-fai announced that the panel, the Education Bureau and the educationsector would discuss how to tackle the problems in meetings scheduled before the end of thecurrent legislature term.
"Hong Kong is a knowledge-based society, so I believe the government should be responsible totackle the problem," Lam noted.
Kevin Yeung said that the authorities will look into the current criteria considered for theredevelopment of schools. The present approach considers school environment, facilities,quality of teaching and future plans of the school.
Yeung acknowledged the deficiencies of matchbox schools. Right now priority is given to schoolsplanning to shift from half-day to full-day operation. He declined to comment when askedwhether the intent is to find solutions by the end of the current administrative term.
"Before we can relocate these schools, we must think about how to deal with design problemssuch as the grille panels and how to reduce noise," Yeung said.
Stanley Chan Chi-yuen, a member of the Subsidized Primary Schools Council, has urged thegovernment to think of other alternatives and to prioritize relocation of these schools instead ofpouring in more money for maintenance work.
"Why do we have to keep pouring in money? Is it necessary? I believe we can sort out a way tosolve it," Chan said.
