LCQ20: Applications for textbook assistance under "Principal Recommendation Scheme"
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     Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (January 26):

Question:

     At present, the Student Financial Assistance Agency (SFAA) implements the School Textbook Assistance Scheme and disburses textbook assistance to needy students before the start of the school year under the Principal Recommendation Scheme (PRS).  In the 2010-2011 school year, about 14 000 primary and 16 000 secondary students received the grant in August 2010.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council :

(a) of the respective numbers of applications received and approved by SFAA in each school year under PRS since the scheme was first implemented in the 2006-2007 school year; the percentages of such numbers in the total number of applications for textbook assistance in that year; whether each school has set a limit on the number of applications;

(b) apart from contacting schools, whether SFAA has directly promoted PRS among parents, so that poor families are aware of the scheme and encouraged to use it;

(c) of the criteria based on which SFAA classified families as "families of relatively lower income" and took the initiative to invite them to submit early applications for textbook assistance of the 2010-2011 school year; the total number of students to whom such invitation had been extended this year; the respective numbers of students whose applications were subsequently approved and not approved, and those students who were found ineligible after their applications were approved resulting in action being taken to recover the assistance granted;

(d) of the number of students who had been granted textbook assistance for two consecutive school years among those who had been granted such assistance in each of the last three school years; the percentage of such number in the total number of applicants in that school year; and

(e) why, in the current school year, SFAA did not invite other students, who had been granted textbook assistance in the last and current school years, to submit early applications for such assistance; how SFAA can improve the criteria so that more students can benefit from advanced disbursement of textbook assistance?

Reply :

President,

     My reply to the Hon Cheung's questions is as follows -

(a) In the 2006/07 to 2010/11 school years, the Student Financial Assistance Agency (SFAA) implemented the "Principal Recommendation Scheme" (PRS), under which students and families with special financial difficulty can receive the textbook assistance early in August.  The number of successful applications under PRS in each school year are set out in the table at Annex 1.

     As all applicants for the School Textbook Assistance Scheme are required to undergo the means test every year, under the existing processing procedures and with the resources available, SFAA and schools concerned can only process a maximum of around 30 000 applications submitted under PRS each year so that the students concerned can receive the textbook assistance before the start of the new school year.  Making reference to the current number of schools covered by the School Textbook Assistance Scheme (around 1 000 schools), SFAA estimated that each school could recommend around 30 students on average under PRS and has thus recommended schools to adopt the ratio of 1 student per class in recommending needy students.

     Notwithstanding that the number of students recommended by some schools had exceeded the suggested "limit", SFAA had accepted all the applications submitted by the families concerned.  As many schools had not fully utilised the recommendation "limit", in 2010/11 school year, SFAA took the initiative to directly invite 30 000 families with relatively lower income as indicated in SFAA's records to submit early applications (in addition to inviting principals to continue to recommend students to submit early applications), with a view to enabling more needy families to receive the subsidy before the start of the school year.

(b) In implementing PRS, apart from notifying the primary and secondary schools concerned about the arrangements in advance, SFAA would also contact welfare agencies, appealing to them to refer families with special financial difficulty to SFAA for follow-up, so that these families can receive the suitable assistance as early as possible to relieve their financial burden.  In addition, SFAA has explained details of PRS to families recommended by schools so that they can liaise with their schools with a view to their being included in PRS in the next school year if necessary.

(c) In 2010/11 school year, SFAA has extended PRS by taking the initiative to directly invite families with relatively lower income to submit early applications.  Families invited by SFAA are those 30 000 families with relatively lower income as indicated in SFAA's records of assistance applications of the 2009/10 school year.  Separately, about 300 students have been recommended by school principals to submit early applications.

     In August 2010, SFAA made early disbursement of textbook assistance to 29 589 students.  Besides, 188 students were not approved textbook assistance because they switched to schools not covered by the School Textbook Assistance Scheme (Note 1).  79 students who had received the subsidy were later found out to have switched to schools not eligible for the School Textbook Assistance Scheme or to have quit studies and hence would have to refund the subsidy granted.

(d) Amongst students receiving textbook assistance in the past three school years, the number of students receiving textbook assistance for two consecutive school years are set out in the table at Annex 2.

(e) As set out in (a), SFAA and schools can only process applications from around 30 000 families for early disbursement of textbook assistance under the existing processing procedures and with the resources available.

     To enable the majority of students to receive the textbook assistance before the start of the school year, SFAA has recently committed to disburse the textbook assistance to the majority of eligible students early in August from the 2011/12 school year, by re-engineering the processing procedures with suitable risk management, increasing manpower and enhancing its computer system.  Specifically, SFAA would first disburse the subsidy to those students who received textbook assistance in the preceding school year and have submitted applications to SFAA by end of May and pass the means test of the new school year.  In the past, SFAA required schools to confirm the student-applicants' information before the disbursement of subsidy.  From the 2011/12 school year, SFAA would only verify the students' information after the start of the school year, i.e. after the majority of eligible students have received the textbook assistance.  Verification will be done through student data matching between the enhanced computer system of SFAA and that of the Education Bureau, thus reducing the relevant workload on the part of schools.  If it is found out in the data matching process that subsidies have been wrongly disbursed to some students who have become ineligible for the subsidy, SFAA would take action to recover the subsidies from the applicants.

     With the re-engineered procedures to process applications, SFAA estimates that around 170 000 families can receive the textbook assistance before the start of the 2011/12 school year, and around 220 000 primary and secondary students can benefit from the measure.  SFAA would disburse subsidies to new Primary One students and those families who submit applications later after the start of the school year.  We believe that with the new processing procedures, we can relieve the financial burden of the majority of parents receiving the textbook assistance in meeting their children's expenses for the new school year.

Note 1: The School Textbook Assistance Scheme only covers needy Primary 1 to Secondary 7 students studying in government, aided, caput schools and local schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme.

Ends/Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Issued at HKT 15:13

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