The Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, visited Shatin Tsung Tsin School today (July 18) to understand the development and changes of the "matchbox-style" school premises and how the school's learning environment has kept up with the times.
      
     Shatin Tsung Tsin School was established in 1975 at Lek Yuen Estate, the first public housing estate in Sha Tin. The Education Bureau (EDB) and the school have been deploying resources to improve the school facilities and environment according to the development needs of the school. As with other schools, the school also arranges for maintenance of the school premises through an annual major repairs (MR) exercise and a daily emergency repairs (ER) mechanism.
      
     Mr Ng toured the school environment, including the facilities enhanced through the School Improvement Programme, such as special rooms, a student activity centre, a library, a staff common room, a covered playground, a hall and a lift.
      
     The principal and teachers shared with Mr Ng how they have holistically planned the school facilities to make flexible use of space. For example, an "Arts Flea Market" was set up for exhibition of students' work in visual arts to nurture their creativity, the space along the staircases is used to display the students' "Tree of Life" project to promote life education, and an area near the covered playground has been decorated as a small garden to increase recreational space for students.
      
     Mr Ng said he was pleased to know that such thoughtful planning had effectively created an environment conducive to learning and established a caring school culture.
      
     On the upkeep of the school premises, Mr Ng said, "The EDB has all along attached great importance to the safety of school premises. According to the School Administration Guide, schools have the responsibility to maintain and manage their school premises, as well as arrange repair works as necessary. Every year, the EDB allocates recurrent subsidies to schools for handling minor repair works on their own. This has the merit of streamlining administrative procedures, thus enabling schools to initiate minor repair works to rectify minor defects as soon as possible. As for larger-scale or more complicated repair works, schools may submit applications under the annual MR exercise and the ER mechanism. Works consultants and contractors appointed by the EDB will assist schools in handling such repair works."
      
     Under the ER mechanism, after receiving an ER request from a school, the consultant will liaise with the school concerned to arrange an on-site inspection at an appropriate time. The consultant will conduct the on-site inspection on the same day the request is received should the situation so warrant and take follow-up actions correspondingly. For example, in the case of concrete spalling, it is a general practice for the contractor to first remove the loose concrete to ensure the safety of the school premises, and then to make arrangements with the school for the necessary repairs. As the repair works might affect the normal operation of the school (for example, classrooms might have to be vacated), the repair arrangements and schedule have to be worked out in consultation with the school, so that the issues can be addressed without affecting teachers and students. Very often, it is only practical to carry out the repair works during long school holidays, which could be misunderstood as delay in follow-up actions.
      
     Regarding recent media reports on problems associated with several “matchbox-style” school premises, the EDB’s records show that the ER requests made by the schools concerned had been processed under the aforesaid ER/MR mechanism prior to such media coverage.
      
     Some of the repair works have been completed, while others are well under way or already scheduled. This shows that the existing mechanism has been operating effectively.
  

Ends/Monday, July 18, 2016
Issued at HKT 18:10

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