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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Chiang Lai-wan and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):
Question:
Starting from the 2014/15 school year, the Education Bureau allocates some $200 million each year to provide public sector schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme secondary schools operating classes at senior secondary levels with the Career and Life Planning Grant (the Grant) for strengthening the manpower and services for life planning (LP) education and career guidance. It has been reported that in a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters last year, 13 per cent of the teachers surveyed indicated that the secondary schools in which they taught had used the Grant for non-LP purposes such as organising study tours. As such, the Chairperson of the Association has criticised that quite a number of secondary schools have a poor grasp of the LP concept and merely use up the Grant in a simple and convenient way. Some principals have remarked that a majority of secondary schools have long developed LP education and hence have used the Grant for other purposes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the latest progress of disbursement of the Grant;
(2) whether it has established a system to monitor the use of the Grant by schools; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(3) whether it has set performance indicators for the Grant to ensure the proper use of public money; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Replies to the three parts of the question raised by Hon Chiang are provided below:
(1) Starting from the 2014/15 school year, the Education Bureau (EDB) has provided public sector schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools operating classes at senior secondary levels with a recurrent Career and Life Planning Grant (CLP Grant) to strengthen life planning education for secondary students. The CLP Grant, which is about $500,000 for the current school year, will be revised annually in line with the adjustment to the mid-point salary of the Graduate Master pay scale.
(2) The primary aim of providing the CLP Grant for schools is to enhance the capacity of the teaching team responsible for life planning education so as to take forward comprehensive life planning education and career guidance service. Apart from issuing a circular and a guide to inform schools of the purpose and detailed arrangements of the Grant, the EDB has organised three briefing sessions in mid-2014 to introduce to principals and teachers the use of the Grant. Key measures for monitoring the use of the Grant include:
(i) Schools should formulate a work plan on the use of the CLP Grant. The work plan should be endorsed by respective Incorporated Management Committee/School Management Committee and uploaded onto the school's homepage to enhance transparency;
(ii) Schools should keep a separate ledger account for the CLP Grant to record all the incomes and expenditures chargeable to the Grant, prepare and submit an annual audited accounts to the EDB in accordance with the prescribed format and timeline to ensure the Grant is deployed for the intended purposes;
(iii) Schools may include life planning education as one of the major concerns in the School Development Plan, and monitor and evaluate its implementation (including the use of the Grant) through the Annual School Plan and School Report. These documents which serve the development needs of the schools also facilitate professional discourse during consultancy visits by the EDB; and
(iv) Since the commencement of the 2014/15 school year, the EDB has been providing support to schools on life planning education services and monitoring schools on how to use the Grant through school visits.
Within the first few months after the implementation of the initiative, the EDB has visited 102 schools. Based on our observation, majority of schools have used the CLP Grant properly, for example, near 90 per cent of the schools have used 80 per cent or more of the grant on employment of staff, organisation of life planning activities and enhancement of school-based career guidance services. The situation is clearly different from the results of the survey conducted by the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and Guidance Masters between July and September last year, the period before schools take forward their plans. The EDB will continue to provide support for schools and teachers. Should irregularities in using the grant be identified, advice on improvements will be given and follow up actions will be taken. Given the individual context of schools and where circumstances allow, schools may use the remaining CLP Grant to enrich school-based career guidance services such as financing needy students' participation in career exploration; engaging experts, the business sector and alumni in sharing with students; and organising different career guidance services to cater for the needs of their students.
(3) Life planning is an ongoing and life-long process for personal fulfilment, with different foci at different stages of one's life. At the stage of schooling, life planning education plays a significant role in fostering students' self-understanding, personal planning, goal setting, reflective thinking and articulation to progression pathways. Effective life planning education and career guidance should be integrated with the school's curriculum, through which students are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitude relating to further study, career and self-management to enable them to make wise choices in accordance with their interests, abilities and orientations as well as connecting their career aspirations with whole-person development and life-long learning.
Schools in Hong Kong are at different stages of development in implementing life planning education. In this connection, schools are advised to set objectives, formulate strategies and build up monitoring/evaluation mechanism for continuous development, having regard to school-based needs. The EDB has also provided school personnel with some suggested items that they may look for when evaluating the work plan on life planning education and career guidance. Some of these suggested items include: can activities/programmes facilitate students' self-understanding and match their abilities, interests as well as career aspirations and formulation of individualised plan; are multifarious kinds of career guidance related programmes/activities arranged to suit diversified needs of students; can school provide different dimensions of career guidance activities; and to consider whether different groups are taken care of.
The EDB will continue to enhance support services for schools, including identifying Professional Development Schools to share good practices; increasing the number of teacher training places from 80 to 240 per year; collaborating with business sector, tertiary institutions and the Qualifications Framework Secretariat in organising talks, thematic seminars, workshops and visits for principals, teachers and parents; revamping the career guidance website to provide teachers, students and parents with more life planning information; and conducting different activities for parents to enhance their understanding about the importance of life planning education. To keep students abreast of different industries and professions as well as the related articulation pathways, the EDB will also expand the Business-School Partnership Programme to provide students with more career exploration opportunities and work related activities so that they can get prepared for work and life in the society. Through the above arrangements, we hope to achieve the goal of nurturing talent by promoting life planning for a bright future.
Ends/Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Issued at HKT 14:45
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