Result announced for takeover of school sponsorship
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The Education Bureau today (July 10) announced that the Fukien Chamber of Commerce Education Fund Limited had been selected as the school sponsoring body to take over the sponsorship of Pegasus Philip Wong Kin Hang Christian Primary School cum Junior Secondary School from July 14, 2009.

"We received 20 applications in this school allocation exercise.  We are very grateful and encouraged by the keen interest and commitment that the applicant bodies demonstrated in participating in the exercise and the expertise and resources they put together.  We are also pleased to have received applications with pragmatic proposals in ensuring continued smooth operation of the school," a spokesman for the Education Bureau said.

"All the applications received have been considered by the Education Bureau on the advice of the School Allocation Committee comprising official and non-official members.  The committee went through a thorough and detailed scrutiny process taking into account a basket of factors including the quality of the school proposal, track record of operation and the extent to which the applicant bodies can ensure continued operation of the school in a smooth manner," the spokesman said.

"During the scrutiny process, the School Allocation Committee also took into account the views of existing parents of the school.  Two rounds of School Allocation Committee meetings were conducted with the shortlisted applicant bodies interviewed.  The committee had taken into account the views of the parents of the existing school.

"The selected applicant body, Fukien Chamber of Commerce Education Fund Limited, is considered the most suitable candidate for taking over the sponsorship of the school.  Among other things, the school sponsoring body has demonstrated that it has devised a comprehensive strategy on preserving the core values of the school while bringing it to a higher academic standard.  It has also put forth effective and practical measures to address the concerns of parents and staff and to handle various urgent tasks in the run-up to the new academic year in September.  All in all, it is the most balanced candidate in terms of its commitment, capability and readiness in taking over the school."

Fukien Chamber of Commerce Education Fund Limited has accepted the offer and entered into a school sponsoring body service agreement with the Government.  To ensure continued smooth operation of the school, the takeover school sponsoring body has undertaken that, among other things, it would -

(1) Operate the school under the Direct Subsidy Scheme with the vision and mission to provide a humanistic inclusive education to help all children through providing a caring student-centred environment;

(2) Take up all existing students of the school (including those who have already been admitted to Primary 1 level of the school for the 2009-10 school year);

(3) Provide a "through-train" arrangement for the school with Fukien Secondary School in Kwun Tong and to place the outgoing Primary 6 and existing junior secondary students of the school to Fukien Secondary School subject to the approval of the Education Bureau starting from the 2009-10 school year or by phase (in any case no later than the 2011-12 school year);

(4) Take up all the existing staff who have entered into employment contract with the school under a two-year probation;

(5) Provide Christian pastoral care to the school and provide Bible and Moral Education subjects for the choice of students with and without Christian belief;

(6) Retain the current school fees for the coming school year;

(7) Provide a set-up fund of no less than $10 million for the operation of the school; and

(8) Devise a stakeholder engagement plan in respect of the parents and existing staff of the School.

"We expect that the school sponsoring body would put in place various measures to set up the School Management Committee, establish mechanisms to engage parents and existing staff, prepare the School Development Plan and get prepared for the opening of the new school year by September.  It requires a lot of hard work on the part of the school sponsoring body and we hope that the existing school sponsoring body, existing staff and parents of the school will give their fullest assistance to the takeover school sponsoring body to ensure a smooth transition," the spokesman said.

Ends/Friday, July 10, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:01

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