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The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) announced today (September 11) that new school premises in the Yuen Long District would accepting applications from eligible school sponsoring bodies (SSBs) for reprovisioning of existing secondary schools in the Second School Allocation Exercise (SAE) 2006.
"Situated in Tin Shui Wai, the school premises has 30 classrooms," an EMB spokesman said. "The premises was made available for re-allocation after an SSB managed to implement whole-day primary schooling on its existing school premises and returned to us the school premises allocated for the purpose. This will help the bureau to address the current need for reprovisioning some existing secondary schools, including direct subsidy scheme schools, which are in need of infrastructure upgrade.
"Allocation of the school premises is on a competitive basis. Quality of education will be the prime consideration in assessing schools' reprovisioning applications. Factors to be considered include the operation track record of the school proposed to be reprovisioned, the school plan after relocation and the physical condition of the school's existing premises. In general, schools with site area less than 3,000 square metres and premises more than 30 years' old will be favourably considered. In addition, the location of the applicant schools, i.e., whether they are currently operating in Yuen Long, will be taken into account.
"Since the school premises are now available for use, applicant SSBs are invited to elaborate their plan on the use of the premises to benefit students or the local community before the secondary school concerned is fully reprovisioned pending completion of the necessary supplementary works.
"As this is a reprovisioning project, the successful applicant will be required to surrender its existing school site to the Government in accordance with the lease conditions upon relocation," he added.
All applications will be considered by the School Allocation Committee comprising an equal number of official and non-official members familiar with the Hong Kong education system. The applicant SSBs are required to complete a reprovisioning application form and submit it together with the required supporting documents, and a proposed school plan (of not more than 10 pages including all annexes plus a two-page executive summary) covering the vision and mission, management and organisation, learning and teaching, school ethos and support for students, performance targets and self-evaluation indicators. Applicants are also invited to include in their proposals any immediate short-term uses of the premises to keep it meaningfully utilised in the interim, pending completion of the necessary supplementary works.
The applicant SSB may also make reference to other school(s) that it is operating and the respective performance of the school(s) to substantiate its case.
In line with the EMB's established policy for school allocation, the applicant body should be a charitable institution or trust of a public character exempted from tax under Section 88 of the Inland Revenue Ordinance, and should be:
(1) incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, with its memorandum and articles of association containing all the standard clauses and articles required for allocation of a school; or
(2) incorporated under other ordinances, with its constitution satisfying the Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower as being fit to be considered for allocation of a school.
Application forms for the Second SAE 2006 and other reference materials can be downloaded from the EMB website (http://www.emb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeid=246&langno=1). More information on this school allocation exercise can also be found on the website.
Applicant bodies are required to submit to the Infrastructure and Research Support Division (Room 1427, 14/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong) by October 6, 2006 one copy of their application form and the supporting documents, together with 15 copies of the proposed school plan and executive summary.
For enquiries, please call 2892 5436 or 2892 6391.
Ends/Monday, September 11, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:12
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