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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a reply by Acting Secretary for Education, Mr Kenneth Chen, in the Legislative Council today (Dec 16):
Question:
Since the 2007/2008 school year, the Government has implemented the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme ("the Scheme") and abolished the "Recommended Normative Salary Scale for Kindergarten Teaching Staff" ("the salary scale"). It was reported that the former Education and Manpower Bureau, when consulting the trade on the Scheme in 2006, had undertaken to put in place comprehensive monitoring measures to avoid teachers of kindergartens (including kindergarten-cum-child centres) from being exploited in terms of pay. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it knows, among the full-time kindergarten teachers in the current school year, the respective numbers of those who have obtained the qualification of Qualified Kindergarten Teacher, Early Childhood Education Diploma and Bachelor's Degree in Education in Early Childhood Education, as well as a breakdown of the numbers by levels of their monthly salaries (i.e. "$6,000 or below" and levels at $3,000 interval thereafter);
(b) it has assessed if the monitoring measures adopted by the authorities have effectively ensured that serving kindergarten teachers will receive salary increase after obtaining the Early Childhood Education Diploma; if the assessment result is in the affirmative, of the average percentage of increase in the salaries of such teachers in each of the past two school years; if it is in the negative, whether the authorities will consider re-instating the salary scale as well as providing matching subsidies according to the salaries of kindergarten teachers, so as to ensure that kindergarten teachers will receive salary increase after they have upgraded their qualifications; and
(c) the authorities will consider providing qualification subsidies to kindergarten teachers which are linked to their qualifications, so as to reflect the authorities' respect and appreciation of the efforts of kindergarten teachers in upgrading their qualifications through furthering studies?
Reply:
President,
Since the 2007/08 school year, the Government has implemented the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) to provide direct fee subsidy for parents, promote the upgrading of quality in pre-primary education and increase parental choice. Under PEVS, kindergartens (KGs) continue to operate under market forces, with flexibility in determining teacher salaries. The Government has substantially increased the resources allocated to pre-primary education through PEVS. The level of fee subsidy under PEVS will increase progressively from $10,000 per student per annum in the 2007/08 school year to $16,000 in the 2011/12 school year, thereby enhancing KGs' capacity to attract and retain quality teachers by offering appropriate pay and conditions of service.
My replies to the questions are as follows:
(a) According to preliminary figures, in the 2009/10 school year about 9,060 teachers (including principals) in local KGs are holding the Qualified Kindergarten Teacher or above qualification, of whom about 4,680 teachers have a Certificate in Early Childhood Education or equivalent, and 880 teachers have a bachelor degree in Early Childhood Education. A breakdown of teacher salary levels by qualification is not available. According to the data collected from KGs in a questionnaire survey conducted by the Education Bureau (EDB), the average monthly salaries of full-time teachers (excluding principals) teaching half-day and whole-day classes in KGs are $9,800 and $16,300 respectively in the 2009/10 school year. A table showing the distribution of monthly salary levels of KG teachers is provided at Annex.
(b)&(c) Flexibility for KGs to determine teacher salaries by market forces is the policy objective of PEVS. As KGs have all along been run by the private sector, we believe that they are well placed to offer reasonable and competitive pay and conditions of service according to the market situation so as to attract and retain quality teachers. In fact, PEVS has injected new resources to the sector, enabling KGs to offer reasonable remuneration to teachers. In addition, KGs joining PEVS are required to disclose in the Profile of Kindergartens key operational information, including teacher salaries and other expenditure items. This is to enhance transparency and enable parents to make informed choices, taking into account the expenditure patterns of KGs.
We do not have a breakdown of teacher salary levels by qualification. However, based on the applications for fee revision by KGs in the past three years, the salaries of KG teachers have generally increased over the same period. Recently, we have collected from over 20 major school sponsoring bodies such information as the pay structures of teachers in their KGs, and noted that most of these bodies designed their pay structures by making reference to the recommended normative salary scale that existed prior to the implementation of PEVS. PEVS has allowed KGs greater flexibility in determining teacher salaries, taking into consideration such factors as a teacher's performance appraisal and qualifications, the conditions of individual KGs and the market environment.
As the Government has made substantial financial commitment to pre-primary education and injected new resources through PEVS, KGs should have adequate capacity in formulating salary scales and providing qualification allowances at their own discretion for their teachers. The Government's stance is that since pre-primary education is privately run, the salaries of KG teachers should be determined by the market. Under the current policy, we do not see any need to formulate a salary scale for KG teachers or provide qualification allowances that are linked to qualifications.
Ends/Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:45
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