[Archive] PEVS background and concept

Reference:

Discussion papers of Panel on Education of the Legislative Council on the future development of pre-primary education and the details on how to implement the voucher scheme.

Discussion paper of Finance Committee of the Legislative Council for funding approval to implement the voucher scheme.

The Chief Executive announced in his Policy Address a series of forward-looking new initiatives for pre-primary education in October 2006. Our vision is for all children aged from 3 to 6 to receive quality and affordable pre-primary education so that parents, students, teachers, kindergarten operators and the whole community will benefit from it.

As a new initiative, a Pre-Primary Education Voucher Scheme has been introduced to provide direct subsidy to parents from the 2007/08 school year onwards, with the voucher value amounting to $13,000 which will be increased progressively to $16,000 by the 2011/12 school year.

The voucher value includes subsidies for school fees and teacher professional development. The amount of voucher value dedicated to school fees and teacher professional development was $10,000 and $3,000 respectively in the 2007/08 school year, and $11,000 and $3,000 respectively in the 2008/09 school year per eligible pupil per annum. For the 2009/10 school year, $12,000 and $2,000 per eligible pupil per annum is dedicated to school fees and teacher professional development, respectively.

Children aged from 3 to 6 studying in nursery, lower and upper classes of a local non-profit-making(NPM) KG that charges fees not more than $24,000 per student per annum (or $48,000 per annum for whole day class) will be eligible for fee subsidy under the voucher system.

To address parents' concerns, EDB has arranged a transition period of three years for the voucher scheme. Starting from the 2007/08 school year until the end of the 2009/10 school year, parents whose children are enrolled in eligible private independent (PI) KGs will be eligible to receive fee subsidy.

PI KGs are eligible to redeem the vouchers only when they satisfy all the prescribed requirements of eligible NPM KGs including the degree of transparency.

Upon full implementation in the 2011/12 school year, we anticipate that more than 80% of KGs will join the scheme while 90% of local students aged from 3 to 6 will receive fee subsidy and families of various classes will benefit from the voucher scheme.

Apart from giving direct subsidy to parents, we will continue to support KG principals and teachers to enhance their professional competency. We expect to upgrade all KG principals' and teachers' qualification to degree and certificate level respectively.

As from 2007/08 to 2010/11 school year, part of the voucher value will be dedicated to staff professional development. By the 2010/11 school year, all voucher value will be spent on subsidising school fees.

We will continue to publish the KG Profile to increase the transparency of schools and provide parents with the necessary information on curriculum to facilitate their choice of an appropriate KG.

KGs will undergo quality assurance full inspection to enhance teaching efficacy. With KGs’ own flexibility in operating the school and the effective quality assurance mechanism, we are confident that the quality of pre-primary education will further be enhanced.

In the 2006/07 school year, we have allocated a one-off grant for KGs to procure teaching aids, computers, books and other teaching resources so as to create an inspiring learning environment for students.

A review will be conducted in the 2011/12 school year i.e. five years after the implementation to map out the procedures and way forward for continuous development.