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By the close of a three-month application period which ended on November 1, the Education Bureau received a total of 57 applications for development of e-textbooks under the Phase Two of E-Textbook Market Development Scheme (EMADS).
Most of the applications cover the subjects of Mathematics (20), English Language (eight) and Chinese Language (five). The remaining 24 applications cover the subjects of Computer Literacy, Putonghua, Science, History, Geography, Life and Society, Chinese History, Physics and Visual Arts. Each application covers a key learning stage (i.e. P1 to P3, P4 to P6, S1 to S3 or S4 to S6).
Thirty-four applications were submitted under the category of non-profit-making organisations and 23 applications were submitted under the category of other organisations/companies.
The EMADS aims to encourage potential and aspiring e-textbook developers to develop e-textbooks in line with our local curricula, as well as to try out a vetting and quality assurance mechanism for e-textbooks.
The applications for different subject sets will be vetted by the respective Subject Vetting Panels on the quality aspects. The Pricing and Implementation Panel will then assess the pricing commitment and implementation for each EMADS application. The Steering Committee on Selection, Quality Assurance and Review for the EMADS will consider the overall applications for the EMADS and advise on the amount of seeding grant to be provided for each of the successful non-profit-making applicants. The application results are anticipated to be available in late December 2013.
To field-test the e-textbooks developed under the EMADS in schools, the Education Bureau has separately launched a Partner Schools Scheme to invite partner schools to try out the e-textbooks and provide feedback, so that the developers could enhance the design and content of the e-textbooks. The selected partner schools will be notified at the end of December 2013, following the announcement of the results of the EMADS applications.
Ends/Monday, November 4, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:02
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