Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday the quality of education and interests of students at Hong Kong International School should not be affected by its ongoing legal dispute and that the Education Bureau is closely monitoring the situation.

The operator of the school is being sued by a US-based church that co-founded the institution. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has accused the school’s operator of serving only the rich and violating their operating agreement.

Lee said he had reminded the relevant parties that students’ rights should be safeguarded.

"In regard to the dispute involving an international school, this is now a subjudice matter, so I won't go into details," he said.

"But the government's position is very clear: the standard of education cannot be affected. Students' rights cannot be affected. These two principles are most important and have been duly related to the parties concerned. The relevant parties take heed of these important principles.

"The Education Bureau will monitor this very closely, and we'll repeat that quality of education and students’ interests must be safeguarded. One other thing they should do is to ensure that the parents and the students should be informed regularly of the developments."