Caritas Wu Cheng-chung Secondary School in Pok Fu Lam and Caritas Charles Vath College in Tung Chung announced last week that the two schools will be merged next September.

Sammy, a secondary two student at Wu Cheng-chung, said it would take him over an hour to commute to the new campus in Tung Chung.

"I live in Shek Pai Wan [in Aberdeen] so the new location is quite far," he said. "[But the traffic] should be manageable as there will be school buses at Hong Kong MTR station."

Another student, Johnson, who is in secondary five, felt sad that he has to bid farewell to the Pok Fu Lam campus.

"We've had so many memories at the campus," he said. "We were surprised [about the merger]."

Wu Cheng-chung teacher Lo Yuk-kwong is confident students can get along with Charles Vath students.

"Most students are still from Caritas Wu Cheng-chung Secondary School, so they [will be surrounded by familiar faces]," he said. "Students [at the Charles Vath College] are from different cultural backgrounds, so I believe they can adapt well to the new environment."

Wu Cheng-chung principal Au Hoi-kin said most arrangements will remain the same after merging, including the teaching medium which uses English for international students and Chinese for local student.

But Au denied that the merge was due to falling enrollment at his school. "The discretionary places [for secondary one] had almost filled up this year, so under-enrollment is not an issue," he said.

He added that if students do not want to relocate, the school will do its best to transfer them to other schools in the district.

Charles Vath College, which has been a Direct Subsidy English-medium school and only offers senior secondary classes, will become an aided school and offer secondary one to six classes after the merger.