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Every student, regardless of their financial background, is given life-wide learning opportunities with the subsidies offered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Life-wide Learning Fund (the Fund), the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Marion Lai, said today (November 20) at the launch ceremony for the new phase of the Fund.
Mrs Lai said student learning is no longer bound by textbooks or confined to classrooms. Schools have been providing students with broad and balanced life-wide learning experiences, allowing them to learn in authentic settings. Such experiential learning enables students to achieve certain learning goals that are more difficult to attain through classroom learning alone. This is important for students to develop and apply various generic skills, and also to nurture positive values and attitudes so as to achieve whole-person development.
Mrs Lai welcomed the new funding of $278 million donated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust this year to finance the Fund for the coming three years.
As the new phase of the Fund will take "Fit to Learn, Serve to Learn" as its theme, Mrs Lai said, the Education Bureau (EDB) will launch a new award scheme and organise related professional development programmes to help teachers better plan activities related to physical development and community service.
Also officiating at the ceremony was the Executive Director of Charities and Community of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Mr Cheung Leong. Several students receiving subsidies from the Fund performed at the ceremony and shared details of their learning journey.
The Fund was jointly established by the EDB and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust in 2002/03. It provides subsidies to participating schools, which in turn offer financial assistance to needy students, enabling them to take part in life-wide learning activities. Up till 2014/15, over $640 million has been donated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
For each of the past three school years, more than 200,000 primary and secondary school students have been benefited from the Fund. These students received the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance or full grant under the School Textbook Assistance Scheme, or were identified as Other Needy Students under the relevant school criteria. In light of the positive impact on the needy students, parents and schools all these years, the Fund has been highly praised by various stakeholders.
The new phase of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Life-wide Learning Fund places more emphasis on adopting a healthy lifestyle through physical activities as well as providing students with more opportunities for community service to nurture caring minds and relevant generic skills for life-long learning. Details are available on the EDB's website (www.edb.gov.hk).
Ends/Friday, November 20, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:31
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