This comes after the bureau changed the criteria for resuming such classes, allowing students who received one vaccine jab to be accepted as fully vaccinated.

Once 70 percent of students and teachers are fully vaccinated, the schools can resume in-person classes for everyone.

So far the Education Bureau has received 31 applications to resume full-day face-to-face classes.

They include two schools which applied to resume classes for the whole school, and another 29 for resuming certain classes, Yeung said.

Among them, five already resumed full-day classes for some of their students.

As the emigration wave hit student numbers, Yeung said that the Education Bureau has conducted a headcount of students in some government-aided schools last Wednesday. It is also consolidating student numbers reported by schools.

The process will be completed next month, Yeung said.
The number of primary and secondary schools may change in the next few years due to emigration of Hong Kong people as well as changes in the birth rate, he said.

Authorities will keep in touch with schools in order to ensure a stable environment for the education sector, and that interests of students and schools will be safeguarded.