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The Government will continue to earmark huge resources in the coming year for developing basic and tertiary education, and will provide additional expenditures for a range of measures to promote employment and encourage continuing education.
Revealing the Government's commitments in education and manpower at a press conference on the 2000-01 Budget today (Thursday), the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong said the measures aimed to help people upgrade their knowledge and skills to gear up for the challenges ahead.
Mr Wong noted that the Government would allocate an additional $1.24 billion in the coming financial year for the new initiatives on education and manpower, of which $300 million would be spent on promoting employment and encouraging continuing education, $140 million to help needy students and $800 million for implementing the education reform.
On promoting employment and encouraging continuing education, Mr Wong pointed out that the Government would introduce the following seven new initiatives:
(1) To continue the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme;
(2) To arrange additional on-the-job training for trainees of the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme;
(3) To increase vocational training places for Secondary 3 and Secondary 5 school leavers;
(4) To increase information technology training places for people of secondary school education level;
(5) To launch bridging programmes for Secondary 5 school leavers and adult learners;
(6) To extend the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme; and
(7) To set up a website for continuing education.
To provide pre-employment training and workplace attachment opportunities for over 10,000 young people, the Government has earmarked $80 million to continue the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme. The Government will conduct a comprehensive review of the Programme before launching this year's Programme in October, and will consult the organisations concerned on further strengthening future training. The current Programme will soon come to an end, incurring an expenditure of some $50 million of which $40 million was sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
In addition, The Government has set aside $26 million for the provision of an additional on-the-job training for trainees of the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme. Employers providing the training will be granted a training subsidy at a rate of $2,000 per trainee per month, but they have to commit to engaging the trainees for permanent jobs on satisfactory completion of the training. The Government will consult employers and other stakeholders on the specific arrangements shortly, so that the training could begin in May or June to tie in with the completion of this year's Youth Pre-employment Training Programme. About 4,000 trainees are expected to benefit from the on-the-job training programme.
To increase vocational training places for Secondary 3 and 5 school leavers, $55 million will be allocated to the Vocational Training Council (VTC) to increase the number of training places from 800 to 1,300 for the Certificate in Vocational Studies course for Secondary 3 school leavers, and to increase from 2,000 to 3,000 the number of training places for the Foundation Diploma course for Secondary 5 school leavers, making up a total increase of 1,500 places for the two training courses.
The Government has also earmarked $18 million for the VTC and the Employees Retraining Board to provide annually 1,000 places for the Information Technology Assistant Training Programme to meet the keen demand of job-seekers and the industry. A pilot course was launched in February this year. The number of places has been increased from the original 170 to 300, due to overwhelming response from the public.
As regards the bridging programmes under the "Project Springboard" to be organised by the Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Education, day or evening programmes will be provided from October this year to Secondary 5 school leavers and adult learners, so that they may pursue continuing education. Some 5,500 places will be offered in the first year and will be increased each year thereafter according to demand. The programmes will be skills-oriented, providing core subjects on language training, information technology application and other practical subjects. Trainees are required to complete at least 10 modules. On completion of the programmes, they may pursue courses at a higher level offered by the organiser or other institutions. The institutions are to run the programmes on a self-financing basis with the tuition fee ranging from $2,500 to $3,000 per module.
The Government has earmarked $60 million to encourage those who wish to enrol in the bridging programmes. Upon successful completion of each module, a student will receive a reimbursement of 30 per cent of the tuition fee. This pilot subsidy scheme will be implemented for three years. A comprehensive review will be conducted before the end of the period to evaluate its effectiveness.
Other support measures include a non-means tested loan for programme participants to meet their tuition fees if needed. The Government will also consider recognising the diploma of these bridging programmes as equivalent to satisfactory completion of Secondary 5 education in the recruitment for certain posts.
To ensure that no one is deprived of continuing education opportunities for lack of financial means, the Government will extend the scope of recognised institutions under the Non-means Tested Loan Scheme to include professional or continuing education courses provided locally by the following institutions:
* non-local universities and professional bodies;
* registered schools; and
* recognised trainig institutions.
The number of eligible applicants is estimated to increase from 200,000 to 700,000 people, while the estimated total annual loan will amount to $173 million.
A website on continuing education to be set up by the Education and Manpower Bureau is expected to be ready for use by July this year. The website aims to link up with major education and training institutions for the provision of a one-stop service. Aspiring students and adult learners can browse the website for courses of their level and interest.
Mr Wong pointed out that of the 2000-01 additional expenditure, $140 million would be on improvement of the School Textbook Assistance Scheme and Student Travel Subsidy Scheme to help needy students. The additional $100 million for improving the School Textbook Assistance Scheme will benefit a total of 334,000 primary and secondary students. The increase of grant rates will range from 22 per cent to 105 per cent. As for the Student Travel Subsidy Scheme, an additional $40 million has been earmarked. It is expected that about 28,000 needy students will receive a doubled amount of the allowance.
Mr Wong noted that the Government had set aside a sum of $800 million for the implementation of the education reform, enabling an early start on those recommendations of the Education Commission that the Government and the community consider to warrant priority action. At the same time, the Government expected the public, particularly the beneficiary of the fruits of education, to shoulder a greater share of the substantial additional cost involved in the implementation of the agreed reform package.
He stressed that the Government would continue to increase its investment in education in the coming year. At a total of $54.4 billion, the expenditure on education represents the largest share (22.3 per cent) of the total public expenditure.
As compared with the current financial year, the total education expenditure represents an increase of 4.1 per cent in nominal terms and four per cent in real terms. Of the $54.4 billion, $36.1 billion (66.4 per cent) will be on basic education, $18.3 billion (33.6 per cent) be on tertiary education.
Mr Wong added that various initiatives to promote quality education would continue to be implemented. These initiatives include building and improving schools premises, operating more whole-day primary schools, providing additional teaching support as well as administrative and technical support to primary and secondary schools, etc.
As regards the aided school sector, the Government will disburse the existing item-by-item non-salary grants to schools in the form of a single recurrent block grant starting from the 2000/01 school year. Schools will be able to use the funds within the block grant in a flexible manner and to retain any unspent funds for future use.
The $5 billion Quality Education Fund established in 1998 has so far approved some 1,400 applications. Of the total approved grant of $774 million, $440 million have already been paid. Due to good financial management, the balance of the fund has risen to $6.4 billion. This should enable the fund to make a greater contribution to the promotion of quality education in future.
End/Thursday, March 9, 2000
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