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The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, today (January 20) invited parents of eligible children to apply to join the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS).
"This scheme would entail an additional $2 billion spending per year, bringing to $3.1 billion the annual spending on our pre-primary education sector," said Professor Li.
"This shows clearly the government's commitment to help parents meet the costs of pre-primary education for their children. By introducing the scheme, we will also provide support to teachers for their professional development to ensure continued enhancement of the quality of our pre-primary sector, an area we attach much importance to given that children are our future," he added.
Starting Monday (January 22), application forms for the Certificate of Eligibility for the PEVS together with information leaflets will be available in District Offices, Post Offices, Regional Education Offices of the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) as well as the Student Financial Assistance Agency in Cheung Sha Wan.
These materials can be downloaded from the designated website for Pre-primary Education New Milestone on EMB's homepage (http://www.emb.gov.hk) and the webpage of the Student Financial Assistance Agency (http://www.sfaa.gov.hk).
To facilitate the smooth processing of applications, parents who wish to receive the Certificate of Eligibility for the PEVS before the beginning of the 2007/08 school year are advised to submit their application forms together with supporting documents to the Student Financial Assistance Agency on or before May 31, 2007.
Eligible children born on or before December 31, 2004 and studying at Nursery, Lower and Upper levels in the 2007/08 school year at local non-profit making kindergartens charging school fees not exceeding $24,000 per student per annum for half day or not exceeding $48,000 per student per annum for whole day are eligible to redeem the vouchers for fee subsidies.
The amount of fee subsidy is $10,000 per eligible student per annum in the 2007/08 school year. It will be gradually increased to $16,000 in the 2011/12 school year.
To facilitate parents, private independent kindergartens offering local curriculum are allowed to redeem the vouchers within the three-year transition period from the 2007/08 school year to the end of the 2009/10 school year, provided that they charge a school fee not exceeding the level set for eligible non-profit-making kindergartens and fulfill specified disclosure requirements. However, the children concerned must have enrolled in nursery classes or above in these private independent kindergartens as of the 2007/08 school year.
Apart from providing fee subsidy to parents, the vouchers will also be redeemed in support of teachers' professional development. For the 2007/08 school year, the subsidy available to an eligible non-profit-making kindergarten for teachers' professional development will be calculated on the basis of $3,000 per eligible pupil per annum.
In order to disseminate information on PEVS to the public, EMB will kick-off a large-scale publicity campaign with items ranging from TV and radio APIs, video documentaries, newspaper advertisements, posters to leaflets.
Briefings will be arranged for parents and the pre-primary sector respectively.
Meanwhile, EMB will issue a circular shortly to invite eligible KGs to apply to join the PEVS.
Ends/Saturday, January 20, 2007
Issued at HKT 13:49
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