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The Education and Manpower Bureau and the Committee on Home-School Co-operation (CHSC) today (March 30) jointly released in their respective homepages the Profile of Kindergartens and Kindergarten-cum-Child Care Centres 2006-07.
"To enhance the transparency of kindergartens as expected by parents and pledged by the Government in implementing the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS), we have sought to provide more essential information to facilitate parents to make choice of kindergartens for their children," a bureau spokesman said.
"All kindergartens joining PEVS are for the first time required to disclose information on their application of fund to various expenditure areas, in addition to other essential operational and curriculum details. This can reveal the way the kindergartens have made use of their resources on teachers and students, which is a matter of concern to parents.
"Apart from information on the number of teaching staff, professional qualification of the principal and teachers, enrolment statistics, teacher-to-pupil ratio and tuition fees, kindergartens are also required to disclose in the Profile details of teaching and learning information and other charges they may collect," he said.
The Profile will show whether a kindergarten is currently receiving subsidy under the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre Subsidy Scheme and the amount per capita which may be reflected as part of the tuition fee in the 2007-08 school year. But the amount will be fully covered by PEVS. The approved school fees of kindergartens for the new school year will be updated in July when the processing of applications for fee adjustment is concluded.
Linkages to information on "Quality Assurance Inspection Summary Reports" and "Good Practices on Pre-primary Education" are also provided to facilitate parents to make informed choice of schools for their children.
Some 850 kindergartens have joined PEVS in the 2007-08 school year. Parents are reminded to submit applications for the Certificate of Eligibility before May 31 if they want the education voucher to be issued in time for redemption in the coming school year.
For more details of PEVS and the Profile, please visit the bureau homepage (http://www.emb.gov.hk) or the CHSC website (http://embhsc.hkedcity.net).
Hardcopies of the Profile will be available for parents' reference at the Regional Education Offices of Education and Manpower Bureau, Public Enquiry Service Centres of the Home Affairs Department, Maternal and Child Health Centres of the Department of Health and Integrated Family Service Centres of the Social Welfare Department starting from April 20.
Ends/Friday, March 30, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:00
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