With a sense of both anticipation and nervousness, Hong Kong students returned to their campuses for the new academic year on Monday, with the assistance of tightly coordinated transportation and with safety measures in place.

From early morning, the special administrative region’s Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre, overseen by the Transport Department, entered its highest-tier steering mode, overseeing the smooth rollout of railways, buses, and ferry services for back-to-school day.

Acting Secretary for Transport and Logistics Liu Chun-san reported that despite heavier traffic near schools, the city’s transportation network operated efficiently, while cross-border students’ commutes also proceeded without major issues.

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Commissioner for Transport Angela Lee Chung-yan said the department had deployed about 100 staff members on-site to monitor the traffic conditions at major public transport interchanges, stations, school areas, land boundary control points and tunnels to ensure a smooth flow of road traffic.

The Mass Transit Railway Corp deployed additional staff to speed passenger flows and promptly adjust services in response to demand.

Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin offered some encouraging words at Tai Po Old Market Public School on Monday morning, where she attended the flag-raising ceremony and the opening assembly, calling on students to embrace the year ahead with self-confidence and courage.

“You can just set out now and get ready along the way,” she said, likening the first day to “the first page of a storybook” that they themselves would author.

Tang Tsz-ching watched her two-year-old son enter Hong Kong (Ascot) Preschool for his first day at kindergarten. “I’m pretty nervous,” she admitted. “I don’t know if he’ll cry — he’s never been away from Mum and Dad.”

The night before, Tang and her son packed his backpack together. “He was thrilled, stuffing all his favorite toys and stationery inside,” Tang recalled, while she prepared documents, snacks, and water as required by the school.

Health precautions were top of Tang’s mind. She applied mosquito repellent and patches because of recent concerns over chikungunya fever — a mosquito-borne disease that has seen a large breakout in Guangdong province, while 13 cases have been recorded in Hong Kong.

The city’s Centre for Health Protection has urged all schools to intensify mosquito prevention efforts — including the removal of stagnant water and a deep cleaning of potential mosquito breeding grounds — and to remind staff members and students to take personal protective measures.

“Children at this age are touching everything and interacting more. We give him supplements to boost immunity, but I trust the school will take good care of him,” Tang said.

Tang also noted that her son, who was born in September, will soon take part in a space-exploration-themed birthday party at school — an icebreaker that she believes will help him adapt to the new environment.

Looking ahead, Tang sounded hopeful and optimistic about her son’s future growth in his first-ever school. “It’s a new beginning for both of us,” she said.

Many students are filled with excitement about the new school year. To this day, Xie Jiaxin, a form five student from a secondary school in Sha Tin, recalls with fondness a study tour to Shandong province arranged by her school at the end of the last school year.

“It was my first time on the Chinese mainland … We climbed Mount Tai — very hot, but the night market was so lively,” she said. “Unlike Hong Kong, there were many shops open late at night, bustling and hustling.”

“In Shandong, we took part in some patriotic education activities as well,” she added, “and the school said earlier that there will be a commemorative talk marking the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression … I hope to learn more about our country’s history and really look forward to more such exchange programs to the mainland.”

In a social media post on Sunday, Choi advised schools to make the most of the opportunity presented by the upcoming 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) and the global defeat of fascism, nurturing a sense of belonging to the country and a national identity among children from an early age.

Meanwhile, new college students also enjoyed a fresh start, stepping into their campuses for the first time. Zhang Yangyang — a postgraduate student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) — was on her way to her first class at 11 am.

Zhang, from the mainland, noticed there were crowds of new students from around the world clustered around the university entrance, where volunteers in uniforms were offering directions and answering questions.

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She was tickled pink when she used a translation app to communicate with a Cantonese-speaking peer who asked to borrow her power bank — an experience she described as a “small but remarkable” step toward integration, which she hopes to deepen by learning the local language.

The backdrop behind this year’s nonlocal intake has been a broader push to internationalize Hong Kong’s education sector.

Latest data from the University Grants Committee — the city’s higher education advisory body — showed that in the 2024-25 academic year, first-year nonlocal admissions across various study levels — from associate degrees to master’s degrees — have risen from the previous school year’s 23,098 to 26,643 — making up 24 percent of publicly funded program enrolments, after the government raised the ceiling for nonlocal students to 40 percent in late 2023.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com