Hong Kong’s education chief has declined to meet about a dozen parents and students petitioning her not to axe Primary One classes at a local school after it failed to enrol the necessary number of pupils.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin on Saturday opted not to meet the group of parents and pupils from Po Yan Oblate Primary School, who waited for her outside an institution in Lok Fu where she was attending an event in the morning.

Hours later, the Education Bureau said it regretted that the relevant school stakeholders had rejected the government’s offer to discuss the matter inside the venue as it was “not ideal for schoolchildren to be exposed to hot weather for an extended period of time”.