Seizing Innovation Opportunities and Building Smart Campuses Together

The Education Bureau (EDB) has just announced the Blueprint for Digital Education Development in Primary and Secondary Schools (the “Blueprint”) on June 17, which provides a clear guiding direction and implementation strategies for promoting the digital transformation of education in primary and secondary schools across Hong Kong in the future.  It aims to enhance students’ digital literacy and equip the younger generation to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the digital era.  One of the key strategies of the Blueprint is to encourage schools to promote the development of smart campuses and actively explore how artificial intelligence (AI) can assist schools in handling administrative work, thereby reducing workload, enhancing capacity, and improving school governance and efficiency.

Positive response from the education sector to building smart campuses together

Developing smart campuses cannot be achieved overnight.  Schools need to review their school-based needs, establish consensus with stakeholders (including frontline teachers), prioritise development, and identify entry points — accumulating practical experience from the specific to the broad (i.e. “point”, “line”, “surface”) to gradually form a school-based digital education ecosystem.

The EDB conducted focus group meetings and school visits earlier to understand how primary and secondary schools are leveraging AI to improve school administrative efficiency, reduce teachers’ administrative workload, and support learning and teaching.  We are pleased to learn that the education sector holds a positive attitude towards AI.  Some schools have proactively initiated work through the “AI for Empowering Learning and Teaching Funding Programme”, for example, building school-based AI servers and developing AI school administration platforms to enhance the effectiveness of learning, teaching, and school governance.

Emerging technology tools can empower student learning and benefit school staff.  For teachers, AI can assist in lesson planning, assignment design, and analysing student performance and progress analysis, thereby optimising the effectiveness of learning and teaching.  For school administration, AI can automate the processing of student attendance records, generate notices, produce meeting minutes, arrange class timetables and teacher substitution, handle procurement and fee matters, and facilitate paperless home-school communication, creating a smart campus environment.  All of the above help free up valuable space for school staff to focus on nurturing students’ personal growth and holistic development.

Effective utilisation of the School Efficiency Grant to accelerate the digital transformation of education

Building on the successful experience and positive feedback from schools’ flexible use of the Teacher Relief Grant (TRG) in the past, and to support schools in promoting the digital transformation in education, the EDB issued the EDB Circular No. 8/2026 today, announcing that the School Efficiency Grant (SEG) will be provided to aided schools with an incorporated management committee (IMC) starting from the 2026/27 school year.  This allows schools, according to their school-based needs, to obtain a cash grant by freezing up to 10% of their approved teaching staff establishment upon prior consent of the IMC and a majority of teachers and parents.

The use of SEG will be prioritised for hiring staff who can specifically collaborate to accelerate the digital transformation of education, such as teachers with a keen interest and/or practical experience in educational digitalisation, as well as administrative and technical support staff familiar with AI, big data analysis, and innovative technologies (e.g. digital transformation, the Internet of Things, and smart campuses).  Schools may also procure services related to promoting educational digitalisation (such as AI solutions and large language model services) to support their use of AI, big data and innovative technologies to accelerate the digital transformation of school education.  In addition, schools can use this grant to procure services/platforms/software/devices related to school administration, learning and teaching, and student support, thereby optimising school administration and supporting teachers’ work on both the software and hardware fronts.

Flexible resource allocation and navigating the future with digital education

As the school-age population continues to decline structurally, SEG serves as a measure to “remove barriers and ease restrictions”, allowing schools greater flexibility and freedom in long-term planning and allocation of human resources.  Smart campuses will also help reduce teachers’ non-teaching workload, enhance the effectiveness of learning and teaching, and enrich students’ learning experiences.

Looking forward, the EDB hopes that schools will continue to play the roles of education advocators, innovators, and pioneers — making good use of the grant to drive the digital transformation of education, fully optimise school administrative management, and enrich students’ learning experience. With concerted efforts of stakeholders in building smart campuses, every student can fulfil their potential empowered by technology, and embrace a future full of infinite possibilities.

SEG website: https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/seg

26 June 2026