School needs to ban children from playing

Lantau International School, a unique international village school on south Lantau, has earned another distinction. It seems it has become the first school in Hong Kong to be served with a noise abatement notice by the Environmental Protection Department on account of the sound its kids make during breaks.


This happened soon after the growing school finally opened new premises in a renovated, derelict hotel at Pui O last month. That project faced peevish opposition on the part of certain sons of the local soil. EPD inspectors turned up and positioned their microphone right outside. They waited for some time before recording any noise, but sure enough, lunchtime came around, the children came out and the valiant EPD officials registered 62 decibels.

According to EPD guidelines, 60 decibels (a level of noise created by normal conversation) is the maximum level allowed in Chinese villages (handy piece of info for when my neighbours have a chat across their rooftops again).


The department slapped the school with the abatement notice and a fine exceeding HK$100,000 (which works out as more than HK$50,000 per decibel).

Welcome to Hong Kong, the oasis of tranquility.

yes, they will be informed. But will it make any difference in this battle against the irate and irrational sons of the soil? Even the government fears to meddle with their rule over their little fiefdoms.

you'd think so but can't find any.

The SCMP would love this, any excuse to point out (quite rightly) how much cr*p we get from the Kuks. Scuse me if that's the wrong spelling!

School faces stiff fine for noise at recess after neighbours complain



Expatriate children at an international primary school in Pui O on Lantau Island are in no doubt about what the locals think of their school. NO NOISY SCHOOL 30-centimetre-high letters scream on a six-metre banner strapped to a roadside railing. Local villagers who erected the banner have complained to the Environmental Protection Department about the noise made by the 70 pupils, aged seven to 11, during recess at Lantau International School. And it could force the school to shut down. The department has issued it with a noise abatement notice, failure to comply with which could cost the school a HK$200,000 fine plus HK$20,000 for every day the order is disregarded. The school has lodged an appeal, which will be heard on Monday. The EPD found the level of noise from the school to be above the permitted 60 decibels. Staff of the school who also measured the noise said it varied between 62 and 65 decibels, slightly over the limit. Principal Serge Berthier and senior teacher Tom Vujnovac say it will be very difficult to pay the fines if the appeal fails. Plus we have to pay heavy legal fees for representation at the appeal, Vujnovac said. And it is not just the noise that is upsetting villagers in the beach resort town just a few kilometres from Mui Wo, the scene of another row with villagers over a school. Pui O residents say they do not see the need for an expensive school with an expatriate teaching staff and a body of mainly expatriate pupils in their small village, where there is already a free public school. Eddie Tam and his wife, Jenny, who live next to the international school - which occupies three village houses in a residential area - said its facilities were inadequate. This school is charging fees close to that of private schools where children have much better facilities, they said. Fees are HK$5,450 a month, and tuition is in English and follows the Basic English Curriculum. Vujnovac said most Pui O residents welcomed the school, but the Tams did not agree with him. Eddie Tam said that when they objected to planning permission he collected 250 signatures of people who lived in Pui O and did not want the school. Police estimate the population of Pui O to be about 1,000. No data is available on how many of these are expatriates. Berthier said the EPD was discriminating against expatriates. There are locally owned holiday homes in Pui O that are very noisy, often through the night. Yet these are never served with such notices, he said. Vujnovac said Pui O public school staff used hand-held loudhailers and roof-mounted loudspeakers to address the pupils, yet they had never received a noise abatement notice. Tam and his wife lead the objectors, but they said three village heads were backing them. He did not deny that the teaching staff were qualified but said the children have no playground; there is less than a metre of ground they can use for leisure breaks. He added that down the road is a public school with plenty of space and a large playground, and also with fully qualified staff. Expatriates are misguided if they think their children cannot be educated in Cantonese. The EPD said that noise complaints had been received about the school since late 2007. Noise measurements taken of the school at a complainant's premises confirmed that the statutory noise limit was being exceeded. Copyright (c) 2010. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Oh good grief!


70dB is an average (single) motor vehicle. Does no one own a car? Is air traffic audible from Pui O, I wonder? If so, that should breach such restrictions also.

What a joke!


Comments about having children taught in Cantonese... who is the misguided one there? That might all be fine and well for ones who remain in a small community in HK, but for a lot of expats, this will not be the case. Not to mention that a totally different language will be spoken at home. Wow. I'm gobsmacked!

Agreed with hellokittyhk. Cars and motorbikes are way louder than that. And of course there's the endemic HK construction noise. Jackhammer and piledriver anyone?


"Expatriates are misguided if they think their children cannot be educated in Cantonese. "


Huh? And have we forgotten all the locals who insist their children be schooled in English and/or Mandarin?



This whole thing smacks of jealousy.

Unbearable noise of kids' play -- Mary Ma Tuesday, September 06, 2011


How noisy is 60 decibels? It's about the sound of a normal conversation in an office, or tree branches ruffled by wind.

But it would be a nightmare standard for any school - including Lantau International School - to comply with.


The school is situated in Pui O, a popular beach resort filled with holiday villas. Its 70 students - seven to 11 years old - are being told by the Environmental Protection Department to hush up, because their voices at play exceed the 60 decibels allowed in rural areas


How noisy are the kids? According to EPD, they're too rambunctious by two decibels during class breaks. Unless one is armed with the most sensitive equipment, I doubt if anyone would ever be able to discern the difference by ear.


But it's bad enough for the department to serve the school with a noise abatement order because of a neighbor's complaint, and failure to comply could cost the school a heavy fine.


The school has sought a judicial review of the order and is still awaiting the outcome.


Most people would agree it's more a case of common sense than the law. I was shocked when the EPD first served the school with a notice to reduce the noise. How can it do this unless it asks the kids to stop playing during breaks?


I strongly question the merits of the notice, given that the children are momentarily noisy, but quiet again after they return to the classrooms.


It's a pity seeing the zero tolerance shown under pressure from a few residents and not the village as a whole.


If there's room for common sense to prevail, perhaps the Islands district officer should step in to encourage engagement between the school management and locals, to promote understanding and goodwill between each side.


Maybe the school can take the initiative too. The bottom line is, its pupils should be allowed to play and relax during breaks like other kids elsewhere.


I disagree with school principal Serge Berthier's accusation that EPD discriminates against expatriates. But he's correct in pointing out there are locally owned holiday villas in Pui O that, especially on public holidays, are very noisy - often through the night.


The Lantau International School can't be the only school in rural areas. Indeed, there's another school just down the road. The others must be subject to the same standard of noise control too. But has any of them been served with a similar noise abatement notice?


It's disturbing. If the matter has to be elevated to the parameters of law from the threshold of common sense, there'll be no room for a double standard. Then, all pupils in schools in places where the stringent noise standard applies must be told to lower their voices too.


If the law is stretched to its absurdity, even hikers wouldn't be able to laugh aloud, as this too will violate the ordinance.


This can't be the original intention of the law. Otherwise, it'll be necessary to review the rules to provide exemptions for special cases - since there isn't a school ground that would meet the 60 decibel standard.

How absurd. The school is situated on a main road, I drive past it every day at least 4 times driving my own child to school in Mui Wo. The noise from the busses and trucks would well exceed that. I think an independent microphone needs to be set up to check the noise levels at other times of the day too, they'll find it's not much lower. I could understand if it was up in the quiet back corner of Pui O but it's on the main road for goodness sakes!


The village chiefs are just peeved because they wanted fast money, so they sold the derelict hotel property to someone cheaply who found it was not a viable business as a hotel so has leased it to LIS.



Pui O villagers also recently bullied the landlord of the property in which there was a veterinary clinic to evict the business as a lot of homeless dogs were living there and it was being used to house shelter dogs for PALS. LIS's other campus in Tong Fuk had better look out, there are more kids there and it is inherently a quieter area (well away from the main road) and I can't see them staying under the limit.