Hong Kong school’s registration revoked amid cross-border DSE tutorial centre row

Hong Kong’s education authorities have revoked the registration of a troubled private school due to poor management, following allegations that the institution collaborated with a Shenzhen-based tutorial centre without prior approval.

The Education Bureau announced on Friday that it had decided to cancel the registration of Tsung Tsin Middle School, which had previously been ordered to suspend operations in early August due to the incident.

“[The school] has not been managed satisfactorily and has not operated during the 2024-25 school year … Consequently, the [bureau] decided to cancel its school registration,” authorities said in a statement.

The private school, located at 11 Kwong Lee Road in Sham Shui Po, was earlier accused of cooperating with Shenzhen-based Capture Star to offer Hong Kong’s university entrance examination curriculum without registration.

But the tutorial centre later denied the allegation, stating that it had only acted as an agent to recruit mainland Chinese students for the private school.

The bureau said on Friday that it believed the current school management committee had not adequately fulfilled its governance responsibilities, citing disputes among the institution’s managers as well as ongoing lawsuits involving the school’s sponsoring body, known as the Tsung Tsin Association, and management.

“The conflicts among school managers have severely affected the daily operations and management of the school, resulting in an undesirable situation,” the bureau said.