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The Education Department (ED) today (August 16) invited interested parties to apply for grants to organise parent education programmes and uniform group activities for the new school term.

Speaking at a press briefing, the Director of Education, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said that these grants were new initiatives to support education reforms in Hong Kong.

On parent education, Mr Cheung said that parents were the first teachers of their children and had great influence on their upbringing in view of their close daily contact.

"Therefore, it is essential that parents should be equipped with the necessary parenting skills and knowledge to provide the suitable environment and guidance for their children to grow up healthily," he said.

"The Government has set aside $50 million to strengthen parent education and to encourage parents to participate in educational affairs in the coming two school years. Part of the funding, amounting to $36 million, will be used as Parent Education Programme Grants to subsidise parent education programmes and outreach programmes for targeted groups of parents."

"It is our goal in the next two years to involve 300,000 parents in various parent education activities, including 3,000 parent education courses and 300 outreach programmes," Mr Cheung said.

Mr Cheung said that these programmes should be well-structured. They should cover a wide range of domains such as children's physical, educational, emotional, personality and moral development at different stages, and parents' acquisition of general discipline and communication techniques in dealing with children of various age groups as well as personal coping and problem-solving skills.

The ED has adopted a two-pronged approach in providing grants for schools, parent-teacher associations and non-profit-making organisations to promote parent education.

"Type I Programme Grants are for the organisation of parent education programmes at workplace-based, school-based or district-based levels, with the maximum grant amounts at $5,000, $8,000 and $20,000 respectively," Mr Cheung explained.

"Type II Programme Grants are for the organisation of outreach programmes, such as home visits, for targeted groups of parents who are generally hard to reach and for parents of children with special needs in learning, development and other areas," he said.

"There is no fixed ceiling to the amount granted to programmes of this sort and applications with original and creative ideas to reach out to targeted parents will be given priority."

To encourage life-wide learning, the Government has also earmarked another $50 million for the promotion of uniform group activities in the next three school years.

Mr Cheung said that through various activities such as outward-bound training and social services, uniform groups could enhance students' organisational and communication skills, adaptability, creativity, discipline, team spirit, conduct as well as social responsibility.

"A total of $43 million has been set aside as Grants under the Uniform Group Enhancement Scheme," he added.

"Some $30 million of the grants will be used to encourage schools, non-profit-making organisations and uniform group headquarters to establish and expand district-based uniform group units and organise uniform group activities for students."

"The grants to help schools or non-profit-making organisations to establish or expand uniform groups are one-off funding to meet the start-up or expansion costs."

"We expect that these grants will help set up 500 new uniform groups and expand the existing 900 units, with an additional 24,000 students joining the uniform groups in the coming three years."

"The maximum amount of grants for schools or non-profit-making organisations to organise school-based or small scale activities is $14,000 per programme while the grants for uniform group headquarters to host large scale activities can reach $200,000 per programme," he said.

"The remaining $13 million will be used to provide core or advanced training in Hong Kong for grooming a total of 4,100 leaders and assistant leaders required for running uniform group units as well as training and visits outside Hong Kong for 400 leaders and assistant leaders."

Mr Cheung appealed to members of the public, especially parents, to support parent education activities and play an active role as leaders of uniform groups to help children grow up healthily.

"It is hoped that through these two initiatives, collaboration among the education, social welfare, health, uniform group and business sectors will be strengthened to support all-round education for students," he added.

Application details and forms for Parent Education Programme Grants and Grants under the Uniform Group Enhancement Scheme are now available and can be downloaded from the ED homepage (http://www.ed.gov.hk).

Application will be accepted throughout the 2001/2002 school year. Applicants will be informed of the result of their applications in writing on a quarterly basis and the first announcement is expected to be made by the end of this year.

For enquiries, please call during office hours the Parent Education Implementation Team on 2639 4774 or 2892 6441, or the Secretariat of the Uniform Group Enhancement Scheme on 2782 8479 or 2782 8451.

End/Thursday, August 16, 2001

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