Andrew Yao Cho-fai founded the Shanghai-Hong Kong Association in 2014 to serve the HongKong community of 100,000 based in Shanghai. Yao had feared many would not settle for long.But a good portion of their children are still attending schools in Hong Kong.

About 4,200 children of Hong Kong parents attended primary and secondary schools inShanghai last year, according to the association's survey. They will likely head for the nationalcollege entrance exam, but Yao said many parents still hope to send their children back touniversities in Hong Kong.

Education planning has major implications for the Hong Kong middle class working on themainland. With their families remaining in the southern city, Yao said most of theseprofessionals will unlikely settle on the mainland.

Yao this year launched a campaign to establish a school in Shanghai to serve the enormousdemand for education that stays in touch with the Hong Kong system. The proposed privateschool will hire Hong Kong teachers, follow the city's curriculum, and let students sit Hong Kongexams in Shanghai.

Yao was aware, however, that he has a lot of bureaucratic hurdles to overcome.

A bolder idea is to let registered voters residing on the mainland vote in Hong Kong district andlegislative elections. "If hundreds of thousands of them can exercise their right, the Hong Konggovernment will more likely take care of them," he said. "But I don't see a possibility for this now."

(HK Edition 03/11/2016 page7)