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The following is issued on behalf of the Education Commission:
The Chairman of the Education Commission (EC), Dr Moses Cheng, submitted today (December 15) its Working Group's Report on Review of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) to the Government.
The Working Group was set up under the EC in October 2009 to take forward the review of the PEVS. The vision of the PEVS is for children of the relevant age group to receive affordable and quality pre-primary education, to preserve the responsiveness of the sector and to further enhance its quality. The terms of reference of the Working Group are to gauge the views of stakeholders on the implementation of the PEVS and to make recommendations to the Government on improvements to the PEVS.
"I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Edmond Ko, the Chairman of the Working Group on the Review of the PEVS, and members of the Working Group for their strenuous efforts and contributions to the review in the past year," Dr Cheng said.
"In making the recommendations on the PEVS, the Working Group has conducted a holistic and forward-looking review of the Scheme and has carefully balanced the views of the stakeholders. Our deliberations have been guided by a set of principles which we believe to be fundamental for the development of a quality, diversified and vibrant pre-primary education system in Hong Kong.
"We believe that the recommendations in this Report will take the sector forward along the right trajectory and assist in our pursuit of quality education. I understand that the Education Bureau is studying the Report and hope that it will make reference to the recommendations in charting the way forward," he added.
Both the Chinese and English versions of the Report are available on the EC's website (www.e-c.edu.hk).
Ends/Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:24
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