Scholarism offers to fund water tests for 20 to 30 Hong Kong secondary schools

Student group Scholarism is offering to fund water tests for about 20 to 30 secondary school student unions, after the ongoing lead contamination scare spread to schools two weeks ago.

The youth activist organisation, which rose to prominence in 2012 for its campaign against the government’s proposed national education curriculum, and later took a leading role in the Occupy movement, said it wanted to do pupils a service rather than having them wait until the Education Bureau or their schools agreed to commission water tests.

In an announcement published on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, the group said it would commission tests at the Hong Kong Productivity Council in Kowloon Tong. Student unions at secondary schools may apply to take one of the 20 to 30 slots.

READ MORE: ‘Protect our children’: Protesters demand water tests in every Hong Kong school after lead-in-water scandal deepens

Spokesman Joshua Wong Chi-fung said the exercise was estimated to cost HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 and the group would cover the full cost for the student unions.

“We raised more than HK$700,000 on the July 1 march for democracy so we have enough funds to do it. But certainly we will be very cautious in using the donations,” he said.

The bureau has pledged to commission water tests for all 980 kindergartens and the 80 publicly-funded primary and secondary schools built after 2005, but has declined teacher groups’ calls for water tests for all schools across the city.

“Many students are worried about the excessive lead in the water they drink. But so far, very few schools have taken the initiative to commission tests and most others are waiting for the government to act. That’s why we are organising this,” Wong said.