ESF investment in new schools is no scandal

Letters to the Editor - SCMP, Friday 10 December 2010

You have run several reports about the "concerned parents" group and their complaints about the English Schools Foundation funding for the private independent schools (Discovery College and Renaissance College). One correspondent described this as a "scandalous investment decision".

I beg to differ. If the ESF had bought condominiums in Bangkok or put the lot on the Triple Trio that would be scandalous.

Instead, it did what it has been doing for years, it invested in new schools. The fact that they are under the private independent schools scheme rather than subvented is because of Hong Kong government policy. As a consequence, the ESF has to keep separate accounts for the two new schools and the investment is treated as a loan that will eventually be repaid. However, in all other respects these are ESF schools.

In the 1980s, the ESF opened two new schools in the New Territories. At that time there was no need to make a loan, but the ESF took money out of its reserves and spent it on developing Sha Tin College and Sha Tin Junior School, rather than spending it on its existing schools.

As the parent of a child who attended the junior school, and is now in Sha Tin College, I am grateful that the ESF took the long-term view and invested in opening these two schools.

You reported that the core of the "concerned parents" group are parents of children at these two Sha Tin schools ("Parents disappointed as ESF rejects freeze on fees", October 31). I wonder if any of them can see the irony of the position they are taking.

Chris Tringham, Sha Tin