🌊Literally just importing students

Policy address platform before policy address is a thing

Jul 26, 2022

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Good morning,

Sorry for the late Tide today y’all, I literally just got back from Dublin and the flight was d e l a y e d.

It was delayed on the way out too, and that’s just honestly the state of travel in Europe right now.

Rail strikes on Wednesday as well across the UK (for all international readers, please plan ahead, don’t get stuck on 1.5 hour delays like I have for almost every trip the past 2 weeks).

— Cyril

On Today’s Tide

Education | Solutions for fewer students - smaller classes or literally import them
COVID | Special airport taxis for the quarantine inclined
Politics | John Lee launches policy address portal before policy address
Events

Behind the paywall:

NSL | National Security classes a core module for HKU
Sports | Local archery records broken; tennis player eyeing 2024 Paris Olympics

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Smaller student numbers = smaller classes

As student numbers continue to drop due to emigration and the closed border leading to fewer cross-border students, the stress is being felt in schools.

Mervyn Cheung from the Hong Kong Education Policy Concern Organisation said that class sizes should be reduced, but the overall number of classes kept the same. He argued that research has shown smaller classes to be better for education standards anyway, and that this would be a good opportunity to adapt.

Smaller student numbers = literally just import them

However, Tang Fei of the Federation of Education Workers (who recently spoke out against boys having long hair) said that a better solution would be to “import” students from the Mainland or South East Asia, saying we should fully sponsor them for elite schools.

At present, the EDB is in favour of neither suggestion - the EDB said that class numbers need to be kept at a certain level in order for extra curricular activities to run. And to import students is a logistical nightmare - we don’t even know where to put them!

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Centre for Health Protection says it is investigating 3,906 additional locally acquired #COVID19 cases, of which 1,449 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 2,457 via rapid antigen tests that were verified

news.gov.hk3.9k local virus cases reportedThe Centre for Health Protection says it is investigating 3,906 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 1,449 were directly identified through nucleic acid tests and 2,457 via rapid antigen tests that were verified.

COVID-19 in Hong Kong

New cases: 4130
Total cases: 1,326,123
New deaths: 3
Total deaths: 9,472

COVID Taxis - all aboard!

In response to the higher number of inbound travelers, starting today, travelers can choose to take a taxi to your quarantine hotel at your own expense.

The 100 taxi drivers working on the scheme are not allowed to pick up other passengers. The government will give them an extra $1500 a day to compensate.

Free coaches will still be available and the gov promises to organize more of those too.

John Lee launches policy address platform without policy address

The media community waits with bated breath for John Lee’s first official policy address on 19 Oct. In the lead-up, Lee has already launches a feedback platform.

I’m guessing we can give views on what we want????

Anyway, send him your feedback on the official site, or Facebook page.

Cyril Ma @Cyrildoesthings

John Lee has released a policy address feedback site before his policy address in Oct (you can tell him what you want I guess). The ad video is broken in English but judging from the script, we're not missing out on much

There will also be around 30 consultations with different stakeholders which will also impact the address (probably).

If you need to catch up on his campaign promises, check out our run down of his major policy areas.

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