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The following is issued on behalf of the Committee on Free Kindergarten Education:
The Committee on Free Kindergarten Education will soon submit its interim progress report to the Education Bureau (EDB), reporting on the progress of work of the Committee and making proposals on interim measures to support the kindergarten sector.
The Chairman of the Committee, Dr Moses Cheng, said today (December 20), "To address the imminent needs of the kindergarten sector, the Committee has proposed some interim measures in the hope of offering assistance to the sector before the completion of the entire study of free kindergarten education. In proposing the interim measures, the Committee has observed some principles including that the measures should not depart fundamentally from the existing subvention policy, that the financial implications for the Government are affordable, and that the measures should not pre-empt the recommendations of the Committee in its final report."
The proposed interim measures include:
* Providing additional subsidy for kindergartens and parents;
- In the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years, the EDB should provide kindergartens under the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme with additional subsidy. The subsidy amount should be considered with reference to teachers' salary and other operating costs of kindergartens (including rental expenses).
- The additional subsidy could possibly be in the form of increased voucher value, one-off grants, etc. In the case of increase in voucher value, the rate of increase is proposed to be not less than 10 per cent each year in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 school years.
- Consideration may be given to enhance the existing Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme, in order to provide greater financial assistance to students from needy families.
- It is recognised that many families need to send their children to kindergartens or kindergarten-cum-child care centres which provide whole-day or extended-hour services. These kindergartens or centres are faced with great challenges and require additional support in their operation. It is proposed that the EDB should consider providing support for them with the available resources under the existing mechanism.
* Enhancing training on leadership and professionalism for kindergarten principals and middle management to equip them to handle school management matters;
* Enhancing teachers' training and school-based support to cater for student diversity;
* Improving the kindergarten admission arrangements and enhancing the enquiry and co-ordination services to provide information and assistance to parents who have difficulty in securing kindergarten places for their children; and
* Enhancing parent education to help parents choose a suitable kindergarten for their children, and to avoid imposing unnecessary pressure on their children.
On the progress of the Committee's work, Dr Cheng said, "Over the past eight months since the establishment of the Committee in April 2013, the Committee and its five Sub-committees have held over 20 meetings to deliberate on various issues relating to free kindergarten education, including objectives, principles and implementation strategies of kindergarten education; kindergarten staffing requirements and admission arrangements; how to enhance support to cater for student diversity; parent education; and interim measures to address the imminent needs of the kindergarten sector. The Committee has also organised and taken part in a series of related activities which include overseas visits, the International Forum on Kindergarten Education, a parent seminar and focus group meetings in the past few months."
The Committee expects that the final report will be submitted to the EDB in 2015. Meanwhile, the Sub-committees will continue to listen to the views of stakeholders and study various issues in detail as follows:
* As children entering primary schools might encounter difficulties in the early stage due to the change in the mode of learning, the Committee will study the strategies, particularly the proper roles of schools and parents, and the school-readiness of children for primary schooling, which will facilitate a smooth transition to primary school.
* The Committee will discuss the core elements of free kindergarten education, the needs of kindergartens of different operating modes, and how to tie in with the population policy of releasing women to the workforce.
* Issues relating to how to stabilise the supply of kindergarten premises and subsidise the related expenses will be explored.
* The Committee will study how to attract talents to join the kindergarten teaching profession. A consultancy study on the job duties and career prospects of the profession could be conducted to provide the basis of the salary scales. This would be a more active approach compared with a salary scale set by the Government, and allow greater flexibility. In addition, the Committee will also study how to subsidise teachers' salaries.
* Strategies for providing appropriate support for non-Chinese speaking students, students with special educational needs and children from needy families will be studied.
* The Committee will study effective strategies for further promoting parent education, so as to enhance parents' understanding on the developmental and learning needs of young children, and to foster home-school co-operation.
"We will listen to different opinions on how to enhance kindergarten education. We understand that the proposed interim measures may not solve all the difficulties faced by the kindergarten sector immediately. However, we believe that the measures are practicable and can be implemented promptly to provide immediate assistance to the kindergarten sector and related stakeholders," Dr Cheng said.
"We will continue to maintain communication with the stakeholders and gauge their views holistically and objectively, and inform the public of the progress of the work of the Committee on a regular basis," he added.
Ends/Friday, December 20, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:35
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