Discovery College has reduced its proposed fee increases following opposition from parents, but pressure remains for the Education Bureau to look into its finances.

Annual tuition fees at the Lantau Island private school will rise by 7.6 per cent instead of the previously announced 9.5 per cent for the coming year.

This takes them to HK$89,500 a year for primary pupils and HK$119,880-HK$121,100 for secondary ones. But an annual non-refundable building levy of HK$5,900 for each student remains in place.

The operator, ESF Educational Services - an affiliate of the English Schools Foundation - has recorded continual annual deficits and needs to repay a construction loan to the foundation.

To enable the smaller fee increases, the ESF has agreed to extend the repayment terms of its development and operating agreement with its affiliate by an extra five years, extending the projected break-even point by two years to 2018-19.

The fee increases are subject to Education Bureau approval.

Parents who have been campaigning against the increases are still unhappy and have demanded a meeting with education minister Eddie Ng Hak-kim. The local district councillor is threatening to take the complaint to the Legislative Council.

Writes Linda Yeung for South China Morning Post