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Following is a question by Dr the Hon Fernando Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (June 7):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council of the number of applications received by the Student Financial Assistance Agency in this academic year under the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme for full-day fee assistance; the number of applications approved, together with a breakdown by the level of assistance (100%, 75% and 50%) and the number of applications which were processed within two months?
Reply:
Madam President,
Up to May 31, 2006, the Student Financial Assistance Agency (SFAA) received a total of 11 460 applications for fee remission under the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Fee Remission Scheme (the Scheme) for whole-day pre-primary services in the 2005/06 academic year.
In general, processing of applications with complete information will be finished in about two months' time from the date of receipt by SFAA. In the 2005/06 academic year, SFAA completed the processing of about 9 700 applications within two months. The remaining applications include those received recently which would be processed within the above timeframe, and those requiring a longer processing time due to incomplete information provided by the applicants.
Among the applications received, 10 325 children passed the means-test for assistance under the Scheme. Fee remission for whole-day pre-primary services is applicable to those passing the social needs test. Otherwise, fee remission for half-day pre-primary services is provided. Breakdown of the number of beneficiaries by level of fee remission is as follows -
Level of Fee Remission No. of beneficiaries
50% 5 101
75% 3 198
100% 2 026
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Total 10 325
Ends/Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:30
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