A guide to application for primary one admission in Hong Kong

Primary school admission is crucial as it sets the foundation for a child’s educational journey. The right school choice can provide a nurturing environment, quality education, and impact their overall development, academic progress, and social skills. In Hong Kong, parents who plan to apply to government or aided schools must apply through the Primary One Admission System (POAS), whereas parents who plan to apply to Direct Subsidy Scheme schools, private primary schools or English Schools Foundation (ESF) schools can apply to those schools directly. The POAS aims to ensure fair and transparent allocation of school places in government and aided schools, while alleviating some pressure imposed on young children entering primary school.

What is the Primary One Admissions System?

The Primary One Admission System process is divided into two stages: the Discretionary Places Admissions stage and a Central Allocation stage. In summary, parents who have particular schools in mind should apply for the Discretionary Places Admissions stage. Parents who don’t just fill out the application form and wait until the Central Allocation stage to find out which school they have been allocated to. The entire system is administered by the Education Bureau of Hong Kong. To see if your child is eligible to apply under the POAS for the 2024 school year, they will need to meet these eligibility criteria:

Born between September 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018;
Is a Hong Kong resident;
Not currently attending any primary schools; and
Has never been allocated a Primary 1 place

School nets

The Primary One Admission System in Hong Kong uses a concept called “school nets” to allocate school places based on the proximity of a child’s residence to the schools in their designated area. A school net refers to a specific geographic zone or district that encompasses several primary schools, and the whole of Hong Kong is divided into some 30 school nets. Each primary school is assigned to a particular school net, and children residing within that net receive priority for admission to the schools within it. The purpose of school nets is to ensure that children have access to schools in their local area, reducing the need for long commutes and promoting community integration. Students who reside in Macau or Mainland China and commute to Hong Kong also have a dedicated net that is close to the border crossing. Some of the most prestigious schools include:

School Net	Popular Schools
Net 12 Wan Chai	St. Paul’s Primary Catholic School, Marymount Primary School, St. Joseph’s Primary School, North Point Government Primary School (Cloudview Road)
Net 41 Kowloon City	La Salle Primary School, Maryknoll Convent School (Primary Section), Holy Family Canossian School, Kowloon Tong Government Primary School
Net 91 Sha Tin	Baptist Lui Ming Choi Primary School, Stewards Pooi Kei Primary School, Sha Tin Methodist Primary School, Po Leung Kuk Chee Jing Yin Primary School
Net 62 Tsuen Wan	CCC Kei Wai Primary School (Ma Wan), Si Yuan School of the Precious Blood, Tsuen Wan Government Primary School, Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial Primary School
Net 70 Tuen Mun	PLK Horizon East Primary School, Tuen Mun Government Primary School, YCH Law Chan Chor Si Primary School, P.L.K. Vicwood K.T. Chong No.2 Primary School

Procedures of POAS

Applying through the POAS may sound like a daunting task, but it’s actually less complicated than it sounds. First, you need to decide whether or not there are specific schools you want to apply to. If the answer is yes, you will need to apply for a Discretionary Place. If not, you will go directly to the Central Allocation stage.

Stage 1: Discretionary Places Admissions

The first stage of the POAS is known as the Discretionary Places Admissions stage, which usually occurs near the end of September. Parents who decide to participate can choose only one school that is located either inside or outside of their school net to apply to. Discretionary places account for around 50% of the spaces offered at each school, and are further divided into two categories.

Category A

Category A refers to applicants with elder siblings that are currently studying at the preferred school OR parent(s) that are working at the preferred school at the time of application. This category accounts for roughly 30% of the discretionary places, and essentially guarantees a spot for applicants who fall in this category.

Category B

Category B makes up the remaining applicants who do not qualify for Category A, and is known as The Points System. Points are scored according to several criteria listed in the table below. Even though it is a points system, schools are not allowed to conduct any tests or interviews. This category accounts for around 20% of discretionary places. Note that each applicant can only claim points for one relationship criteria from 1 to 5, and one criteria from 6 to 7. For example, if your child has a sibling who graduated from the primary school AND you are working in the secondary school section of the same primary school, you will only be awarded 20 points.

Number	Criteria	Point allocation
1	Applicant has a parent working in another section of the primary school (i.e. the Kindergarten or Secondary sections)	20 points
2	Applicant has a sibling studying in the secondary section of the primary school	20 points
3	Parent is a school manager of the primary school	20 points
4	Parent or sibling is a graduate of the primary school	10 points
5	Applicant is the firstborn child	5 points
6	Applicant has the same religious affiliation as the sponsoring body that operates the primary school	5 points
7	Parent is a member of the organization that sponsors the operations of the primary school	5 points
8	Applicant is between the ages of 5 years 8 months and 7 years old	10 points

Discretionary places admissions results are usually released in late November. If your child is admitted into the school of your choice, you must register on the dates specified by the school. If you fail to register on those dates, your spot will be forfeited.

Stage 2: Central Allocation

Those who do not have a particular school in mind to apply to will go directly to the Central Allocation stage. Those who participated in the Discretionary Places stage but who do not receive an offer from their preferred school will also end up in Central Allocation. Primary schools are required to reserve about 50% of their primary one spots for central allocation. The Education Bureau will inform parents in mid to late January to go to a designated central allocation center to make their choices for their children’s schools. Similar to the Discretionary Places stage, the Central Allocation stage is also split into two parts.

Part 1: Unrestricted School Choices

Parents can choose their top three schools, either inside or outside their school net, for this part of the application. Those who applied in the Discretionary Places stage but did not get accepted can choose the same schools in the central allocation stage.

Part 2: Restricted School Choices

After ranking their top three schools, parents must rank the remaining schools in their school net by order of preference.

A computer algorithm will then process all the Unrestricted School Choices first, and then move on to Restricted School Choices. In the event that a school receives more applications than the number of spots available, the computer algorithm will randomly select students from the pool of applicants to ensure maximum fairness.

The results of the Central Allocation stage will be released on June 5 to 6, 2024 via post or SMS. Parents can also check their results via the POA e-platform. Parents will then need to register their children at the allocated school within the specified time. Below, you will find a table with the key dates and events for primary one admission for 2024.

September 1 to 29, 2023	Distribution of application form for admission to primary one
September 25 to 29, 2023	Application for discretionary places (DP)
November 20, 2023	Discretionary places results released
November 22 to 23, 2023	Registration of students that have been allocated a discretionary place
Late January, 2024	Receive the letter for Central Allocation
January 22 to 28, 2024	Parents to submit the Choice of Schools From via ePOA
January 27 to 28, 2024	Go to a designated central allocation center to make choices for schools
June 5 to 6, 2024	Central Allocation results released through post or SMS (if applicable)
June 11 to 12, 2024	Registration of students that have been allocated places under Central Allocation

Previous primary schools allocation data from Tutor Time’s graduates

Tutor Time graduates go on to attend all kinds of top primary schools in Hong Kong, ranging from public to private and local to international. In 2023, 65% of our graduates got accepted into international primary schools including Chinese International School, Hong Kong International School, Canadian International School, ESF, ISF, Harrow International School and many more. The remaining 35% of our graduates went on to attend top local schools such as St. Francis’ Canossian School, St. Paul’s Co-ed, St. Mary’s Canossian School, St. Hilary’s Primary School and many more.

Conclusion

Preparing for primary school can be daunting and challenging for many families. With the abundance of options available in Hong Kong, deciding where to apply and meeting all the requirements of each school can be difficult. For those applying to government and aided schools, the Primary One Admissions System helps to centralize the process and alleviate a lot of the stress from both parents and children. Just remember that if you do plan to participate in the POAS, you will have to keep track of the key dates for the Discretionary Places Admissions stage (which starts in September) and the Central Allocation stage (which starts in January). Do your research beforehand to see which school net you reside in and what school options you have, then decide if you want to apply for a Discretionary Place. For those applying for 2024, the process has already begun, so keep an eye out for the key dates mentioned above!

A guide to the Primary One Admission System 2024-2025