補習-Harrowing

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Parents hoping to get kids into Harrow International School Hong Kong when it opens in September next year will have to have deep, deep pockets.
The Tuen Mun branch of the posh British school, which has produced world leaders and poets, will charge fees ranging from HK$106,600 to HK$145,000 a year – and parents will have to pick one of three expensive packages to help pay for the project.
The options include buying a HK$3 million individual capital certificate, which can be transferred among parents, and buying individual debentures worth HK$600,000.
Both are non-interest bearing and can be refunded if the child fails to win admission.
The debentures, but not the certificates, are also refundable six years after the pupil starts school.
A third option is to pay an annual capital levy of HK$50,000 – for up to 13 years.
In comparison, the Hong Kong International School at Repulse Bay has annual fees of up to HK$195,500 in Grade 12.
Harrow School in London – motto Stet Fortuna Domus or "Let the Fortune of the House Stand" – has fees of nearly 30,000 (HK$381,600) a year.
At Tuen Mun, if parents go for buying certificates or debentures, the school will ask them to pay before children sit the exams.
The foundation stone of the school was laid yesterday.
"Our project is totally self-funded," said executive headmaster Mark Hensman of Harrow International Schools. "The reason that we have issued debentures is to contribute to the cost of constructing the school
."
The school said the first batch of certificates and debentures are already fully subscribed, but refused to disclose numbers. The levy is charged only when a child is enrolled.
Parents are asked to pick the packages to help finance construction, acquisition of facilities and equipment, and their enhancement, the school said.
So far, the school has received more than 1,000 applications and selected about 300 for interviews and the entrance examination.
There will be 1,500 places. The school expects at least half the students will be nonlocal, including children of overseas families coming to Hong Kong for work. There will be boarding facilities to cover 440 students in the first phase and a further 120 in the second phase.
"There is a genuine demand for quality international schools across Asia amidst rising aspirations of parents for their children to pursue English learning and to gain qualifications that will facilitate access to western universities," Harrow’s Hong Kong headmaster Mel Mrowiec said.
The Hong Kong branch is the third in Asia. The others are in Beijing and Bangkok.
Officiating at the ceremony, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said: "The government strives to meet the needs of growing numbers of overseas families coming to Hong Kong for work or investment. We will continue our dialogue with the international schools, consuls general and the business sector to ensure an adequate provision of school places."
Meanwhile, Henderson Land Development vice chairman Peter Lee Ka- kit donated an undisclosed sum to the school for scholarships for local students.