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Education

scheme will benefit three cohorts of students, with up to 100 students per cohort, starting from the 2015-16 academic year. As at December 2015, 92 students had been offered scholarships, and scholarships and bursaries totalled $17.3 million.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Scholarship Fund and Self-financing Post- secondary Education Fund

The $2.27 billion HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund awards scholarships on the basis of merit to outstanding local and non-local students studying in full-time publicly funded programmes at sub-degree and degree level or above in the eight UGC-funded institutions, the Academy for Performing Arts and the VTC. In the self-financing post-secondary education. sector, a $3.52 billion Self-financing Post-secondary Education Fund provides scholarships and awards to outstanding students pursuing full-time locally accredited self-financing sub-degree or undergraduate programmes, and supports worthwhile initiatives and schemes to enhance self-financing post-secondary education.

In the 2014-15 academic year, 9,007 scholarships and awards were distributed by the two funds.

Scholarship for Prospective English Teachers

The government's Scholarship for Prospective English Teachers aims to attract persons proficient in English to pursue local bachelor degree programmes and/or teacher training programmes majoring in English or a relevant subject which will qualify them to become English teachers on graduation.

Community Participation in Education

Home-School Co-operation

The Committee on Home-School Co-operation encourages the establishment of Parent- Teacher Associations (PTAs). As at 2015, about 1,400 PTAs had been established. The bureau funded about 3,200 school-based and district-based home-school co-operation activities in the 2014-15 school year.

Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education

The committee advises the government on civic education, collaborates with the government and other parties in arranging civic education activities, and sponsors community organisations to organise projects to promote civic education outside school. In 2015, the committee concentrated on encouraging a positive attitude towards life, fostering family harmony to cultivate an integrated and harmonious society, instilling core civic values, and promoting understanding of the Basic Law and the Mainland.

The committee promoted the core civic values of 'Respect and Inclusiveness, 'Responsibility, 'Love' and 'Upholding the Rule of Law' to encourage mutual respect in the community for those from different cultural backgrounds and with different points of view. To mark the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Basic Law, the committee also organised seminars and a quiz competition to promote the Basic Law, and encouraged community groups and district.

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