POA school nets: the 36 nets and how to find yours from an address (2027)

What this page answers

This page answers one question for Primary One entry in September 2027 under the Primary One Admission (POA) system: which of the 36 Primary One school nets the child’s residential address falls in, and at which stage that number limits the schools a parent may choose. The round now being handled, from September 2026, is this one. Discretionary Places applications on the e-platform run from 17 to 25 September 2026; paper forms are handed to the school from 21 to 25 September. Central Allocation choices are not filled in until January 2027. The net restricts Part B of Central Allocation. It does not restrict Discretionary Places, and it does not restrict Part A.

This page does not name any school. Which schools sit in a net is a matter for the lists the Education Bureau publishes. Direct Subsidy Scheme primaries and private primaries, including international schools and ESF, are outside POA and are not allocated through these 36 nets.

When the net actually matters

Places in government and aided primaries are split into two phases, each about half: Discretionary Places and Central Allocation. Discretionary Places then split into must-admit places and a points route, but that is a points question. It does not change the rule that Discretionary Places are not limited by net. Central Allocation itself splits into Part A and Part B. The percentages below are shares of Central Allocation places, not of all Primary One places.

An own-net school already chosen in Part A may be entered again in Part B. Siblings who want the same school must submit identical choice lists. Different lists can produce different results. Central Allocation uses no points and no territory-wide or net bands of the kind used for secondary allocation. It uses a random number and the order of the parents’ choices.

In mid-January 2027 the Bureau posts the Central Allocation choice notice, the parents’ notes, and the school list for the net of that family’s address. If nothing has arrived by 18 January 2027, contact the School Places Allocation Section (2832 7700; the other enquiry number is 2832 7740). The website also publishes a school-choice list for each net, with file names such as Net46.pdf. That number is the net, not a school. The Discretionary Places primary-school list groups schools by net and shows each school’s Discretionary Places quota, school type, finance type and religion, for the September application. Grouping by net does not mean Discretionary Places are limited to the home net.

How to find the net for an address

The steps in Parent Guide (8) (September 2025) are below. The interface may change when the system is updated. What changes is where the buttons sit, not the rule that the map decides.

1. Open the GeoInfo Map (map.gov.hk).
2. Search for the address.
3. Click the pencil button on the right.
4. Click the plus button on the left.
5. Click the spot to drop a marker.
6. Open the menu (three horizontal lines), then Education, Primary schools, and Primary One Admission school nets.
7. The net number appears on the marked spot.

The map:www.map.gov.hk.

The table below is the shortcut in the district-to-net look-up. It is not a boundary. Where an area maps to more than one number, only the map decides which one. The Bureau also notes that if the printed and online versions differ, the online version prevails.

Place-name groupings on this look-up and on the 36-net list in the next section do not match line for line. Both are published by the Bureau. This page does not merge them into a third table. For example, the net list names code 41 as Kowloon Tong, while the look-up places 41 in the same row as Ho Man Tin, Hung Hom and Kowloon City. The net list names code 34 as Ho Man Tin and To Kwa Wan; the look-up’s matching group does not single out To Kwa Wan. Where more than one number is listed, do not guess from the place name.

A Sha Tin walk-through

The look-up says only “Sha Tin: 88, 89, 91”. The net list names 88 as Tai Wai, 89 as Ma On Shan, and 91 as Sha Tin town centre and Fo Tan. Suppose the child’s sole or main residence is around Sha Tin town centre. The characters “Sha Tin” in the address do not by themselves mean code 91, and a school someone describes as being in another code is not a reason to write 88 or 89 instead. Search that address on the map, drop the marker, and read the number on it. Part B choices come only from that net’s school list. The same rule applies where North Point, Shau Kei Wan and Chai Wan map to 14 and 16, Tuen Mun maps to 70 and 71, and Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long map to 72, 73 and 74.

The 36 Primary One school nets

The codes and areas below are the school-net list in the Bureau’s Primary One briefing. An area name is not a door-to-door boundary. Which net a particular building falls in is still the marker on the GeoInfo Map.

Children on the cross-boundary schooling scheme do not fill in these codes; see below. The 36 nets are for local residential addresses used to apply for government and aided primaries through POA. They are not the 18 secondary-school nets, which follow the district of the primary school. Do not mix the two numbering systems or their boundaries.

Common situations

General guidance, not an Education Bureau rule. The Bureau’s documents do not describe a procedure for changing net after a move, and they do not set a separate rule for a child living with grandparents. What follows states only what those documents actually say. Where they are silent, ask the School Places Allocation Section rather than filling the gap with what other families are said to do.

Moving before or after the January form

Central Allocation choices on the e-platform (epoa.edb.gov.hk) run from 18 to 24 January 2027. In-person submission at designated centres is on 23 and 24 January. Suppose a family is still at the current address in December 2026 but plans to move, before the form is filled in, to another home that will be the child’s sole or main residence. The practical step is to look up the address that will be declared, and to confirm it with the School Places Allocation Section before 18 January, because the documents do not say which day’s address locks the net.

If the form has already been submitted between 18 and 24 January and the family moves afterwards, including a move after results on 2 to 3 June 2027, the documents likewise do not say whether the net already used will be rewritten. The contact number is 2832 7700. Do not assume the system updates the net by itself, and do not assume the old net stays in place.

A child living mainly with grandparents

The address is defined as the child’s sole or main residence. The documents do not say the home must be a property in a parent’s name, and they do not say a grandparent’s home never counts. If the child mainly lives at the grandparents’ home, look that address up on the map and confirm with the School Places Allocation Section, before you declare it, whether it meets “sole or main residence”. Declaring an address that is not the main residence is the false-address case in the next section. The question is whether the address is true, not whether the flat is owner-occupied, rented or borrowed.

Cross-boundary children

This paragraph is an Education Bureau rule, not the general guidance above. Children on the scheme for cross-boundary schooling in Hong Kong do not use a school net and do not fill in a net code. They receive a special Central Allocation list of schools near the control points and may list up to 30 schools in Part B. These documents do not name the schools or the control points. How the list is collected, and what happens beyond those 30, is a question for the School Places Allocation Section.

Address proof and the consequences

The residential address is the child’s sole or main residence. A false address voids the application and cancels a place already allocated, and may be prosecuted under the Crimes Ordinance: forgery up to 14 years’ imprisonment; a false statutory declaration up to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine. The Bureau may check documents, require statutory declarations, and make home visits. The report hotline is 2832 7700.

The Primary One list of common errors names these address proofs as unacceptable: mobile-phone bills, bank statements, and deposit slips without receipts. That list does not attach a complete catalogue of documents Primary One does accept, so this page does not invent one. The Bureau also lists confusing the address net with the school net as a separate common error.

Cross-net allocation at secondary level is a different procedure, not Primary One Part B. For that procedure the Bureau lists, as accepted address proof: a stamped tenancy, a rates or government-rent demand, a public-housing tenancy, a home-broadband bill, a residential fixed-line bill, and utility bills (gas, electricity or water). The document must show the parent’s name and address. Not accepted: bank statements, mobile-phone bills, court summonses, and tax demand notes. Do not mix the two lists. A stamped tenancy on the secondary cross-net list does not mean the Primary One documents have stated it as accepted proof.

Common misunderstandings

“Part B follows the district the school is in.” It does not. Part B follows the net of the child’s residential address, using the list the Bureau supplies. The school’s own net does not set the form. The Bureau lists “address net is not the school net” as a common error. Discretionary Places may be made to one government or aided primary in any net. Part A is up to 3 schools, also in any net.

“The GeoInfo Map is only for reference; the look-up numbers are what count.” They are not. The Bureau states that the area of each net is governed by the GeoInfo Map on its website. Where one area maps to several numbers, the look-up does not replace the marker. If the printed and online versions differ, the online version prevails.

“Part B can include a school in another net.” It cannot. Part B must be schools in the address net, about 90% of Central Allocation places. The part that can name other nets is Part A, about 10%, up to 3 schools. An own-net school chosen in Part A may be repeated in Part B, but the repeat is still an own-net school. It is not a way to write an out-of-net school into Part B.

“A rented flat’s address is not acceptable.” It is not ruled out on that ground. The test is whether the address is the child’s sole or main residence. The documents do not list “rented” as a reason to reject an address. What Primary One names as unacceptable are certain documents: mobile-phone bills, bank statements, and deposit slips without receipts. The secondary cross-net list includes a stamped tenancy among accepted proofs, but that is a different procedure and cannot be copied across to Primary One.

“After results are out, moving house changes the net automatically.” These documents contain no such rule. They do not say whether a change of address after submission, including after results on 2 to 3 June 2027, changes the net already used. Contact the School Places Allocation Section on 2832 7700.

Next steps

How Central Allocation handles Part A, Part B and the random number is onPrimary One Central Allocation. The path from the September application to June registration is onthe Primary One process. Points for the Discretionary Places points route are separate from nets, but September still allows only one school. The criteria are onPOA points.

Common questions