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Following is a question by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (June 5):
Question:
In recent years, some aided schools (quite a number of them being traditional prestigious schools) have become Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools one after another. However, some aided schools' plans of becoming DSS schools have met with strong opposition from the parents of their students and the alumni, who worry that students from poor families will be deterred by the high school fees of DSS schools from applying for admission to these schools, which contradicts the schools' vision of education for all. On the other hand, a study has found that, the percentage of secondary school students from wealthy families admitted to university in 2011 was 3.7 times of that of students from poor families, while it was just 1.2 times 20 years ago. Some members of the community are concerned whether the opportunities for students from poor families for admission to university will be reduced further as they have been deterred by the high school fees to study in DSS schools with better academic results. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how the authorities, when vetting and approving applications from aided schools for admission to DSS, handle and compile statistics on the views on such applications expressed by stakeholders (including parents, alumni, teachers, education bodies and residents in the district, etc.), and whether such views have decisive effect when the authorities consider such applications;
(b) given that the objectives of DSS, when it was first launched by the Government, included "[enabling] parents [to] have greater choice in finding suitable schools for their children", but some parents of students have pointed out that the choices for their children to attend their preferred schools in the district have been reduced as they cannot afford the high school fees of DSS schools, whether the authorities have assessed if such a situation reflects that the original objective has not been achieved; whether they have capped the percentage of the number of DSS schools in the total number of publicly-funded schools; and
(c) whether it has assessed if the authorities' approval for aided schools with better academic results to become DSS schools, which charge higher school fees, will reduce the opportunities of students from the middle and lower classes to attend such schools, thereby affecting their opportunities of pursuing further studies and upward mobility in future, and aggravating problems such as income disparity between the rich and the poor as well as social isolation, etc.; if it has assessed, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
All along, the Government is devoted to enhancing the educational quality of the territory. Following the growth of the society, diversification in school types is a natural tendency in school education development. Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) helps facilitate such diversification in school systems.
My reply to the questions is as follows:
(a) If aided schools apply for joining the DSS, the Education Bureau (EDB) will assess the applications in accordance with a set of established criteria. The applicant school must be able to demonstrate its readiness and capability to provide quality education under the DSS as well as sound financial viability for sustainable development. At the same time, the EDB will also give consideration to other factors, including the effect on the supply and demand of school places arising from the change of financing mode of the school, the results of the school's consultation with its stakeholders (including parents, teachers, alumni, etc.), whether the school could duly address the concerns of the stakeholders, etc.
(b) DSS schools may collect school fees so as to provide additional and quality support services for students and to improve the school facilities and teaching environment. We must emphasise that DSS is a diversified system. There is a large variation in the level of school fees collected by the schools. Some DSS schools collect relatively high school fees while quite a number of DSS schools collect low school fees (for example, individual DSS schools collect school fees less than $1,500 per annum) or even do not collect school fees at certain class levels.
The EDB requires each DSS school to set aside at least 10 per cent of the total school fee income to provide fee remission and scholarship for students so as to ensure that students will not be deprived of the opportunity to attend DSS schools because of their inability to pay fees. If the school fees are between 2/3 (two-third) and 2 1/3 (two and one-third) of the DSS unit subsidy rate, the school should set aside 50 cents for the fee remission and scholarship scheme for every additional dollar charged over and above 2/3 (two-third) of the DSS unit subsidy rate. The eligibility benchmarks for the fee remission and scholarship scheme should not be stricter than the government financial assistance schemes for needy students. Moreover, in assessing the students' eligibility for fee remission, no factors except the parents' financial situation should be taken into consideration.
With the implementation of the DSS for over 20 years, 21 aided secondary and primary schools joined the DSS. As of the 2012/13 school year, there are 73 DSS schools. They account for about 9 per cent of the publicly-funded schools. Although we have not set an upper limit to the percentage of DSS schools among the total number of publicly-funded schools, we will continue to assess the applications for turning DSS in accordance with the established criteria, ensure that there are sufficient publicly-funded school places in every district to meet the demand and safeguard the opportunity of every student to enrol in the schools they prefer regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds. DSS schools should admit students based on reasonable and professionally sound criteria and must make public the admission criteria and weightings prior to admission so as to ensure that parents are well aware of these admission criteria.
(c) One of the major characteristics of DSS is to offer fee remission and scholarship for meeting the different needs of students with different socio-economic backgrounds. To ensure that there is a fair opportunity for students coming from different social strata to study in DSS schools, starting from last year, all DSS schools have been required to follow the recommendations made by the Working Group on Direct Subsidy Scheme set up in February 2011 and chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Education to implement a series of new measures for enhancing transparency of the fee remission and scholarship scheme.
The measures which have taken effect from 2012 include:
(1) to clearly indicate in the application form for admission and the School Profile that needy students (including those from families receiving the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and students receiving financial assistance provided by the Student Finance Assistance Agency (SFAA)) could apply for school fee remission;
(2) to provide in the admission application form details of the school fee remission and scholarship schemes;
(3) to provide details of the school fee remission and scholarship schemes to all students newly admitted to the schools by enclosing such details with the letter offering admission;
(4) to provide an application form for the school fee remission and scholarship schemes to each of the eligible students when the school notifies students of the application results for assistance from the SFAA; and
(5) to complete processing the applications for school fee remission schemes from newly admitted students before the commencement of the school year as far as possible so that those eligible students will not be required to pay the school fee in advance, etc.
The EDB also requires DSS schools to demonstrate that their fee remission and scholarship criteria are well thought-out with due regard to taking care of students with different backgrounds. We believe the series of measures for enhancing the transparency of the fee remission and scholarship schemes mentioned above could help facilitate more students of the middle or lower class to get admission to DSS schools.
As reflected in the DSS schools' 2010/11 audited accounts, over half of the DSS schools fully utilised 100 per cent or even over 600 per cent of their required fee remission and scholarship reserve though some of them showed a relatively low utilisation rate of the fee remission and scholarship reserve. The audited accounts also reflect that the total amount of fee remission and scholarship utilised by DSS schools in that school year reached about 150 million. This proves that quite a number of students with more financial needs are being benefited from this measure. Apart from this, DSS schools are prohibited to transfer funds in the school fee remission and scholarship reserve out to other reserves or for other uses. Thus, there is no need for schools to accumulate the relevant reserve. Instead, schools should duly utilise the reserve for providing assistance for students with more financial needs.
Ends/Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:07
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