Secretary for Education Christine Choi said on Friday officials had thought about suspending school for a third day because of Super Typhoon Ragasa but ended up deciding against it.

In the event, the cancellation for all classes in Hong Kong was restricted to Tuesday and Wednesday, with the government announcing late on Wednesday the resumption of classes for primary and secondary schools on Thursday.

"Firstly, we gathered information from other government departments, including on road and flooding conditions in different districts," she said on a Commercial Radio programme.

"Another thing was the situation of school campuses. Once we had the information, we felt there was basically no problem with resuming classes, it was safe."

Choi said around 30 schools asked for the class suspension to continue into Thursday because their campuses weren't ready. All but two of them resumed classes on Friday.

Around a dozen other schools, meanwhile, asked to be allowed to conduct classes online out of safety concerns.

Choi noted that classes had been much affected due to adverse weather this summer and that's why officials wanted to resume classes as soon as possible – so long as conditions permit.

Choi said the safety of pupils is always the top priority in the decision-making process.

She noted it'd be difficult for parents if they had to pick up their children mid-day and that this would have added to the burden on the transport network.