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Education

Adult Education

In the 2013-14 school year, around 1,500 adult students enrolled in evening secondary courses at designated centres operated by Approved Course Providers under the Financial Assistance Scheme for Designated Evening Adult Education Courses. Eligible students obtained subsidies under the scheme.

Quality Education Fund

Up to the end of the 2012-13 school year, the Quality Education Fund had approved around $4 billion for some 8,300 projects to promote high quality education and schemes that recognise excellence in schools and teachers.

School-based Support Services

School-based support services aim to foster leadership at schools, in particular at the middle managers' level, widen the dissemination of informed practice to improve learning, teaching and assessment strategies in the classroom, and support professional learning among teachers. In the 2012-13 school year, the EDB provided school-based support services, including those financed by the Education Development Fund, to 290 secondary schools, 391 primary schools, 15 special schools and 187 kindergartens/kindergarten-cum-child care centres.

The Regional Education Offices also offer school-based support services to schools in response to the needs of students, teachers, schools and other stakeholders they serve.

Support Measures for Non-Chinese Speaking Students

The government is committed to encouraging and supporting early integration of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students into the community, including facilitating their adaptation to the local education system and mastery of the Chinese language. The government has put in place various support measures to enhance NCS students' learning. These include a supplementary guide to the Chinese language curriculum, adapted textbooks, provision of internal assessment tools, school-based professional support and funding support to schools admitting NCS students.

The universities have been commissioned to provide on-site support programmes, alongside the Chinese Language Learning Support Centres offering after-school support to NCS students and to train Chinese language teachers of schools with NCS students.

To help NCS students, UGC-funded institutions accept alternative Chinese language qualifications, including the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), General Certificate of Education (GCE) AS- Level and GCE A-Level under specified circumstances for application under the Joint University Programmes Admissions System. The fees payable by NCS students taking these Chinese language examinations are subsidised so that they are the same as those for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (Chinese Language) examination. NCS students with financial needs may receive half or full remission of the subsidised examination fee.

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