Hong Kong Academy for 2020 fee discount petition

As Covid-19 began to spread, schools in Hong Kong were closed down for several months during the 2019-2020 academic year. In compliance with government regulations, Hong Kong Academy (HKA) closed its doors and began providing online learning, the success of which relies heavily on the oversight and direct involvement of parents fulfilling roles normally executed by school faculty. 

Despite the ratio of the traditional teacher/parent teaching time being inverted, with many working parents having to make special accommodations to spend the hours required for home learning, Hong Kong Academy has not yet offered any form of discount.  We hope that through this petition, the board of directors and administration of Hong Kong Academy will reconsider this position and extend a degree of financial relief at a time when many families are facing financial challenges. 

Many comparable international schools in Hong Kong have offered discounts on tuition or fees, including Nord Anglia, Hong Kong International School, Canadian International School, ESF Schools, and Australian International School, to name just a few.  To date, HKA has not offered any recompense for decreased classroom time over the past four months, but instead offers individual discounts on a case-by-case basis after a rigorous financial investigation of the family's current financial situation.  

Of course the closure of the school was mandated by the government and the families all recognise the faculty and and staff are doing everything they can under the circumstances to provide education online. However, this is not the level of learning and educational excellence that we signed up for when joining the HKA community, nor does the current HKA fee policy take into consideration the considerable investment beyond tuition, be it time, often taken off from work, or additional resources, that each family has made in order to help make remote learning successful during this period. 

THE REQUEST

We the undersigned wish to join other HKA families in respectfully requesting that the board and administration offer one of the following forms of financial compensation in consideration of the educational services provided during the 2019-2020 academic year: 

1) Eliminate or reduce the Capital Levy for 2020-2021 academic year for returning families, or refund an equal amount to departing families

or 

2)  a 2020 online learning rebate for each student enrolled during the 2019-2020 academic year

or 

3) other financial remedies that recognise and compensate families in equal measure for the reduced services provided by HKA during the 2019-2020 academic year

WHAT TO DO

Please sign the petition below and forward the link to other HKA parents in ALL the age groups and friend circles. When the numbers are sufficent we will send to HKA. 

Parents of HKA    Contact the author of the petition