A fifth of Hong Kong’s international schools are struggling to hire teachers just days before the start of the new academic year, as analysts and staff warn that the city’s strict Covid-19 quarantine regime is making recruitment “extremely difficult”.
Not even the offer of higher wages has been enough to attract teachers to the Chinese territory, which has had to follow a version of Beijing’s contentious zero-Covid policy.
“The salaries are already at the top end,” said Ruth Benny, a Hong Kong education specialist at consultancy Top Schools. “There is not much more most schools can do. They need to be a bit more creative about incentives. It is tricky.”