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Transfering schools

  1. #9
    capital is offline Banned
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    May 2004
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    can anyone explain what exactly a debenture is?


  2. #10
    spockey is offline Registered User
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    As far as I understand it, it's a non-interest bearing deposit that you place with a school. E.g. GSIS, you have to pay a HK$250 000 debenture for a school place for every child. You can withdraw the debenture when your child withdraws from the school. If there isn't a debenture required it means that all debenture-based places for the schools have been "purchased", then you will have to contribute to a building fund. the AIS is one such example. There are debentures but their debentures are "sold out" and so, if you are a student, you'd have to contribute HK$14000 (I'm unsure of the exact figure) each year to a buildind fund of sorts.

    I didn't realise that you can purchase a debenture for ESF. I am presuming that it's for the private wing of the ESF because many ESF schools are subsidised by the government.


  3. #11
    Freya is offline Registered User
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    As I understand it, it is not a debenture as such it is called a Corporate Surety Scheme. A non refundable surety. It is only applicable to ESF schools (subsidised) not ESF educational services (private - the ones set up to generate profits for ESF schools). The scheme is for expats relocating to HK and the student must be a native english speaker and it is conditional on passing an english proficiency and interview. In regards to debentures, there are so many different types for the various schools, some are refundable, some start to deppriciate as soon as you purchase them even if your child does not yet have a place at the school and some are non refundable. Best to check them out with the schools you are applying to.


  4. #12
    barbwong_130 is offline Registered User
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    My sons used to attend the Canadian International School and we bought debentures for them in 1998. At the time the cost of each debenture was $170,000. When I sold them last summer the cost was $400,000. This is not actually the bargain it seems as the school keeps half the profit. Still a return of nearly 68% over nine years isn’t too bad, especially when you add in that if you don’t have a debenture you need to pay an ever increasing annual fee – I believe currently of $23,000 a year.


  5. #13
    spockey is offline Registered User
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    Hi BarbWong
    Does it mean that if you purchase a debenture, the annual student fee is pegged to a specific rate for a certain no. of years at CIS?


  6. #14
    barbwong_130 is offline Registered User
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    At CDNIS (not CIS - that's Chinese International) if you have a debenture you don't pay the annual fee - which is why I've forgoten the exact amount.

    This makes the debenture very good value as I saved about $180,000 on annual fees for each child over the nine years they were at the school.


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