***********************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (July 9):
Question:
Regarding the supply and demand of places in schools for social development ("SSD"), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the following in the past five years:
(i) the annual numbers of places in and students waiting for admission to SSD, broken down by gender and grades;
(ii) among the students waiting for admission to SSD each year, the number and percentage of those who withdrew their enrolment applications, broken down by the students' gender and grades as well as the reasons for withdrawing their applications; and
(iii) the respective annual numbers, broken down by the students' gender, of SSD Secondary 3 ("S3") graduates who continued their studies in S4 in the same school, enrolled in mainstream schools, enrolled in institutions under the Vocational Training Council and attended other courses, as well as the number of students who dropped out of school within the first year of their enrolment in mainstream schools due to poor academic results;
(b) of the number of classes to be provided in each of the coming five years, broken down by schools and grades;
(c) as it is known that a residential home, which is adjacent to a SSD and managed by the Social Welfare Department, has at least 16 residential places not fully utilised, whether these residential places can be made available immediately so as to increase SSD places; and whether measures are in place to resolve in the long run the problem of insufficient SSD places to meet the demand; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(d) of the total number of SSD S4 places which will fall short in the coming five years for S3 graduates to continue their studies in the same schools; the measures in place to remove the bottleneck at senior secondary levels; and whether additional senior secondary classes can be provided without cutting junior secondary places (so as to avoid aggravating the acute shortage of junior secondary places);
(e) given that the New Senior Secondary Academic Structure will be implemented in 2009-2010, whether the authority concerned has assessed the number of additional classrooms and types of facilities required for SSD to operate more senior secondary classes; if assessments have been made, of the details, broken down by schools; if not, of the specific measures in place to assist those schools the premises of which are not well-equipped in operating senior secondary classes; and
(f) whether the authorities will, having regard to the scale and teaching needs of SSD, consider various options, such as operating senior secondary classes under a "2-2-1" trapezoidal class structure, to assist SSD in addressing the shortage of such classes; if not, of the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a)(i) SSD places are divided into two categories: day placement and day placement cum residential service. Under the Central Co-ordinating Referral Mechanism, the Education Bureau (EDB) and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) process applications for placement to SSD and residential homes respectively and arrange placement for students in need. As no comprehensive data for the 2002/03 school year and before was kept, relevant information for that school year is not available. As such, the information for the four school years from 2003/04 to 2006/07 is provided in this sub-paragraph and (ii) below. The number of places in and students waiting for admission to SSD, broken down by gender and grades, are set out in Annex 1.
(ii) Among the students waiting for admission to SSD each year, the number and percentage of those who withdrew their enrolment applications, broken down by the students' gender and grades as well as the reasons for withdrawing their applications are set out in Annex 2.
(iii) According to the findings of the EDB's annual questionnaire surveys, the respective number of SSD S3 students who continued their studies in S4 in the same school, enrolled in mainstream schools, enrolled in institutions under the Vocational Training Council (VTC) and attended other courses in the past 5 years are in Table 1.
We do not maintain any statistics on SSD students dropping out of school due to poor academic results after their return to mainstream schools.
(b) As the EDB determines each year the numbers of classes to be operated in SSD having regard to the supply and demand of places, the number of classes to be operated in the 2009/10 school year and beyond are not available at this stage. The approved number of classes to be operated in SSD in the 2008/09 school year, which are similar to those for the 2007/08 school year, are in Table 2.
(c) The SWD has not frozen any places in residential homes adjacent to SSD. To meet service demand and optimise the use of resources, it created 8 additional residential places for girls and deleted 24 such places for boys between 1999 and 2002. Between 2003 and 2005, it allocated additional resources to create 20 and 8 residential places for girls and boys respectively. The Department also has plans to create about 40 residential places (the respective numbers of places for girls and boys are to be confirmed) in the 2008/09 school year to meet overall service needs. In general, students in mainstream schools with behavioural or family problems may apply for admission to SSD. If residential care is also needed, they may apply for residential places attached to SSD. Alternatively, they may apply for other residential services for children, such as children's homes, boys'/girls' homes and hostels. The EDB and SWD will consider increasing the number of SSD places and related residential places to meet service demand through such measures as conversion works and/or reprovisioning of schools.
(d) Since the emotional and behavioural problems of the students in SSD are transient in nature, some of the S3 students there will be re-integrated into mainstream schools to continue their studies at senior secondary levels under existing arrangement. With the implementation of the New Senior Secondary Academic Structure in the 2009/10 school year, those SSD with secondary classes will provide new senior secondary classes as necessary. We expect that sufficient senior secondary places will be provided in SSD.
(e) The EDB has assessed the need for additional classrooms and facilities for the implementation of the New Senior Secondary Academic Structure in SSD. It plans to provide three SSD with two to three additional classrooms each as well as other ancillary facilities. It is also actively exploring the feasibility of reprovisioning another SSD.
(f) We will discuss with individual SSD and determine the class structure in a flexible manner, on the basis of the actual needs and scale of the schools.
Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:25
NNNN