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Transcript of remarks by SED
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     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, at a media session when attending the Legislative Council meeting today (April 9):

Reporter: What have you personally done to help the parents in Tin Shui Wai (regarding closure of a kindergarten)?

Secretary for Education: Upon the receipt of the issue, the incident and the development, including the parents' gathering last night, I actually made a personal trip this morning on site, together with my colleagues, to try to understand what the latest development is, including the type of information and actions we have been taking. To quote an example, first of all, parents made a lot of calls to our offices. To date we have got over 110 calls from them. Their major concern was that, would there be school places available. That's the first question. On that particular count, my colleagues have already talked to them, highlighting that altogether, in terms of capacity, there should be around 1 500 (vacant places) at least in the district. As far as the voucher-schemed type of school places (is concerned), it is over 1 100. That's the first one.

     The second one relates to, would there be a list of specific places by schools, by kindergartens in the vicinity. This is one thing that my colleagues are now calling around to try to get the most updated survey result. That's the second thing we are doing.

     The third thing we are trying to do as well is also to look around some other information as to the availability of some other potential rental places that might be able to be considered as an alternate site for the school. We have already provided some information as well.

     Last but not least, we are encouraging, we understand the new school sponsoring body, which will take over this one, (is) also planning for parent gathering and others. Together with a number of those issues, like whether they have collected fees early in the cycle, all these things, we asked them that they need to clarify them as soon as possible as well.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:52

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