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The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:
The Chairman of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Steering Committee, Mr Pang Yiu-kai, today (March 15) announced the 11 priority themes for QEF applications, effective from April 1, 2010.
"The Quality Education Fund (QEF) is designed to explore priority themes to address the prevailing needs of school education," Mr Pang said.
After reviewing the existing priority themes and making reference to announcements of important policy directions and inputs from education stakeholders, four new priority themes will be introduced for application, namely, Creative Arts and Culture Education, Green Campus, Extended Education Programmes for Students with Special Educational Needs, and Healthy Lifestyle and Positive Development of Students. Seven of the existing themes continue to be open for application.
Apart from the above priority themes, applicants can apply to undertake other innovative projects that meet the needs of schools or enhance the quality of school education.
Mr Pang also announced that with effect from April 1, 2010, the number of applications that all independent faculties/departments/centres of tertiary institutions can make in each academic year is increased from two to three. The increase will further enhance their collaboration with pre-primary, primary and secondary education sectors. The existing quota of two applications for other applicants remains the same.
Applications for grants not exceeding $200,000 can be submitted through simplified assessment procedures. The QEF previously raised the ceiling under the simplified assessment procedures to $300,000 to allow more applications be processed under this mechanism.
Details of the application rules will be uploaded to the QEF website (qef.org.hk/) on April 1, 2010. A series of briefing sessions will be held in late April to familiarise potential applicants with the priority themes and the application rules.
To share the successful experience of QEF projects, the QEF organises regular dissemination activities for schools. QEF Thematic Networks (QTNs) on Gifted Education, Serving Students with Dyslexia, Drama Education, Film Art and Project Learning have been set up to establish professional networks for the sustainable development and capacity building of teachers.
To promote the QEF for the community market, some QEF deliverables are also available through direct sale and via mail order. Recent popular QEF deliverables, including Rainbow Action: Protocol for the Identification of Students with Special Educational Needs, Teaching Package on Comprehensive Health Project for Young Children and Project on the Development of Network for Reading and Writing Strategies, provide suitable resources for schools, parents and the public. Another best-selling item, Heritage of the Chinese Culture, has been published in simplified Chinese by the Peking University Press on the Mainland, and will be translated into English for promotion to the overseas market.
The QEF processed about 600 applications in the 2008/09 school year. Almost half of these applications were approved involving a total grant amounting to around $107.1 million. Besides directly benefiting about 512,300 beneficiaries, QEF projects also generate innovative and successful project ideas, practices and experiences for the education sector as a whole. The grants approved in this school year range from about $10,000 to $6,788,800.
The QEF was established in 1998 with capital of $5 billion to support community initiatives that promote quality education in Hong Kong. Since its establishment, the Fund has supported around 7,700 applications with grants amounting to around $3.7 billion. The balance of the Fund, pending audit review, at the end of November 2009 was about $6.44 billion.
Ends/Monday, March 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 17:29
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