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The Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, announced today (May 8) that each kindergarten, primary and secondary school in Hong Kong would receive a special grant of $3,000 to support their continuous efforts in actively taking preventive measures against human swine flu.
Mr Suen, in a letter issued to all schools today, expressed his sincerest thanks to school colleagues for their hard work and joint efforts in preventing the spread of the flu.
"Although there is temporarily no sign of the spread of the disease, we should not slacken our preventive work. May I appeal to all schools to continue with the precautionary measures and clean their school campus."
The Education Bureau will disburse $3,000 as a special one-off grant to each school in Hong Kong for expenses related to the work of pandemic prevention. Details of the disbursement of the grant will be announced next week. The schools include kindergartens, kindergartens cum child care centres, and primary and secondary schools (i.e. government, aided, caput, Direct Subsidy Scheme, English Schools Foundation, international and private).
Mr Suen said that besides keeping school campuses clean, household hygiene was equally important to protect the health of students. He reminded parents again to pay close attention to students'[ personal hygiene and keep their home clean. He said parents' participation and support would enhance the effectiveness of the precautionary measures.
Meanwhile, the Education Bureau has urged the Committee on Home-School Co-operation and schools' parent-teacher associations to join in preventing the spread of the flu. Schools have responded enthusiastically to the Education Bureau's appeal and have written to parents urging them to pay closer attention to the health of their children.
Ends/Friday, May 8, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:05
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