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Education

Government's Role in Education

The Secretary for Education, who heads the Education Bureau, formulates, develops and reviews educational policies, secures funds from the government budget, and oversees the implementation of educational programmes with the assistance of the Permanent Secretary for Education.

Expenditure on Education

The total budgeted government expenditure on education in the 2015-16 financial year is $79.3 billion (18 per cent of total government expenditure), of which $71.4 billion is recurrent expenditure on education (22 per cent of total recurrent government expenditure).

Education Commission

The Education Commission advises the government on education objectives and policies and co-ordinates the work of all major education-related advisory bodies in the planning and development of education at all levels. The commission also advises the government on important implementation issues.

The commission comprises a chairman, a vice-chairman who is the Permanent Secretary for Education, eight ex-officio members and a number of non-official members. The eight ex-officio members comprise the chairpersons of the Committee on Professional Development of Teachers and Principals, the Committee on Self-financing Post-secondary Education, the Curriculum Development Council, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Council, the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee, the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, the University Grants Committee and the VTC. The non- official members come from both education and non-education fields.

Kindergarten Education

Pre-primary education is not compulsory and all kindergartens are privately run in Hong Kong. The government's Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) provides a non-means-tested direct fee subsidy for children with right of abode in Hong Kong aged above two years and eight months attending eligible local non-profit-making kindergartens. In the 2015-16 school year, about 185,400 children were enrolled in 1,000 kindergartens/kindergarten-cum-child care centres. About 76 per cent of students and 96 per cent of local non-profit-making kindergartens benefited under the PEVS. A means-tested fee remission scheme is also available to needy families to ensure that no child will be deprived of kindergarten education because of lack of means. Under the PEVS, quality assurance for kindergartens is enhanced through a self- evaluation system, supported by an external review process.

All kindergartens are required to employ qualified kindergarten teachers and, starting from 2012-13, kindergartens under the PEVS should employ teachers with a Certificate in Early Childhood Education on a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:15. With effect from 2009-10, all newly appointed kindergarten principals must have a bachelor degree in Early Childhood Education.

Providing free kindergarten education is one of the priorities of the current-term government and a committee set up by the bureau in April 2013 to make specific proposals on how to

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