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The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:
The Chairman of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Steering Committee, Mr Pang Yiu-kai, today (March 18) announced the 10 priority themes for QEF applications that will come into effect on April 1.
"The QEF will continue the practice of exploring priority themes and application mechanisms to address the prevailing needs of school education," Mr Pang said.
After reviewing the existing priority themes and making reference to announcements of important education policies and inputs from education stakeholders, a new priority theme on "Promoting Whole Child Development in Pre-primary Education" will be introduced to encourage different sectors to support pre-primary education. Three existing priority themes, namely, "Wellness Programmes for Teachers", "Review of School Administrative Work" and "Use of New Technology for School Administrative Work" will be reorganised into a new theme "Supporting Effective School Management and/or Teacher Wellness", with a view to promoting professionalism and occupational health for the education profession. The other eight themes encompass educational exchange, positive development of students, environmental conservation, support for students with special education needs, learning and teaching of languages, assessment for learning, national education and creative arts education.
Apart from the above priority themes, applicants can also apply to undertake other innovative projects that meet the needs of schools/school sector or enhance the quality of school education.
Mr Pang also announced a series of measures to encourage education stakeholders to better utilise the Fund. With effect from April 1 this year, the application quota of school applicants will be increased to three applications in a school year. Meanwhile, taking into consideration the capacity and needs of schools under their supervision, sponsoring bodies may transfer quota among their schools.
Details of the application rules will be uploaded to the QEF website (www.qef.org.hk) on April 1. A series of briefing sessions will be organised in May to familiarise potential applicants with the application procedures.
To further encourage pre-primary institutions to apply for the Fund, the QEF Secretariat will organise a series of briefings cum workshops on proposal writing to acquaint principals and teachers from the pre-primary sector with the new theme. "Promoting Whole Child Development in Pre-primary Education", and to help the attendees to acquire skills in writing application proposals.
To share the successful experience of QEF projects, the QEF organises regular dissemination activities for schools. QEF Thematic Networks (QTNs) on Gifted Education, Serving Students with Dyslexia, Drama in Education, Project Learning and Healthy Schools have been set up to establish professional networks for the sustainable development and capacity building of teachers. In the current school year, nearly 300 secondary, primary and pre-primary schools are supported by the QTNs with the grant amounting to about $7.6 million.
To promote the QEF for the community market, some QEF deliverables are also available through direct sale and via mail orders. Recent popular QEF deliverables -- including Empowering Teachers, Parents and Children for the Smooth Transition from Preschool to Primary School: Partnership between Preschool and Primary School, Stress Management Platform Selections, Teaching and Learning for Preschool Children with Autism - Handbook for Instructors and Project on the Development of Network for Reading and Writing Strategies -- provide suitable resources for schools, parents and the public. Another best-selling item, Heritage of Chinese Culture, has been published in simplified Chinese by Peking University Press on the Mainland, and is being translated into English for promotion to the overseas market. On-line purchase of QEF deliverables will be introduced in the last quarter of this year when the enhancement of the QEF Cyber Resource Centre is completed.
The QEF processed 453 applications in the 2009/10 school year among which more than half were approved, involving a total grant amounting to around $95 million. The grants approved range from about $7,000 to $5 million. The QEF brings about successful, innovative project ideas, practices and experiences for the education sector as a whole.
The QEF was established in 1998 with capital of $5 billion to support community initiatives that promote quality education in Hong Kong. Since its establishment, the Fund has supported around 7,900 applications with grants amounting to around $3.8 billion. The balance of the Fund, pending audit review, at the end of November 2010 was about $6.69 billion.
Ends/Friday, March 18, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:31
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