The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:
The Chairman of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Steering Committee, Dr Gordon Tsui, today (May 25) announced the direction of the QEF, including the setting up of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools with the QEF allocating $3 billion as proposed in the 2018-19 Budget, and the 11 priority themes for the 2018/19 QEF applications.
Dr Tsui said that since its introduction in 1998, the QEF, in line with the education development and policies of Hong Kong, had been striving to enhance the quality of school education and promote quality education. The QEF organises professional development activities, establishes quality school networks, and shares fruitful results with the education sector, with a view to facilitating professional exchanges and promoting a culture of quality education.
He added that the QEF Steering Committee had made a proactive response to the Government's suggestion in the Budget earlier and decided to allocate $3 billion for the setting up of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools for schools to launch school-based curriculum development and support measures for students, as well as relevant school campus improvement works and procurement of supplies. This measure will be applicable to all publicly funded primary and secondary schools, including schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), special schools, and the kindergartens under the New Kindergarten Education Scheme. It is a four-year programme starting from the 2018/19 school year. The first call for application will be made from July this year. To simplify the application procedures, the QEF has designed a designated application form and will upload examples to the QEF website for schools' reference.
"The QEF hopes that the programme would better assist schools to launch school-based pilot or improvement projects to enhance learning and teaching as well as student support measures. The QEF Steering Committee agreed to set a total indicative value for each school from the primary and secondary schools sector and the kindergarten sector for reference purposes only. The indicative value of projects from the kindergarten sector is $500,000 and that of projects from the primary and secondary schools sectors (including special and DSS schools) is $2 million. By making reference to the total indicative values, each school may apply for one or more projects in the four school years. The total indicative values are intended to enable schools to plan ahead in preparing their budgets, and should not be taken as absolute ceiling amounts or a grant of a fixed value provided to schools. Simplified procedures have been designed for this dedicated funding programme to reduce the workload of schools in the application process," Dr Tsui said.
In addition, the QEF will continue to provide 11 priority themes, covering the areas of "Learning and Teaching", "Support for Students and School Ethos" and "Management and Organisations". Elaboration on the respective priority themes is given to facilitate the preparation of proposals.
The 11 priority themes for 2018/19 are:
Areas Priority Themes
—— —————–
Learning * Catering for Learners' Diversity
and Teaching * Effective Learning and Teaching of Languages
* Enhancing Learning and Teaching, and
Assessment Literacy with a view to
Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes in
Primary General Studies, Key Learning
Areas/Subject Curricula and Liberal Studies
* Using e-Learning (IT) for Effective Learning
* Values Education
* Creative Arts and Culture Education
Support for * Healthy Lifestyle and Positive Students
Students and and Development of Students
School Ethos * Support for Students with Diverse Needs
* Promoting Whole-person Development
among Kindergarten Children
Management and * Supporting Effective School Organisations
Organisation Management and Leadership
* Teacher Development and Wellness for
Promoting Schools as Learning Organisations
The QEF will continue to enhance communication and partnership with various stakeholders to create and share successful QEF project experiences. In addition to implementing the QEF Thematic Networks for knowledge transfer and sustainable professional development of teachers, the QEF has expanded the scope of the Thematic Networks to include initiatives which, not funded by the QEF, have been implemented in schools with good effect, in order to promote professional exchange and collaboration over quality education and benefit more schools.
To familiarise potential applicants with the application procedures of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools and the priority themes, the QEF Secretariat will hold briefing sessions for the applicants of the following groups:
* kindergartens (June 1, am)
* primary schools, special schools and school sponsoring bodies (June 4, am)
* secondary schools, special schools and school sponsoring bodies (June 4, pm)
* tertiary education institutions (June 8, am)
* non-government organisations (June 13, am)
Details of the application procedures will be uploaded to the QEF website (qef.org.hk) on May 29. Apart from briefing sessions, the QEF Secretariat will organise regular proposal-writing workshops and individual consultation sessions for prospective applicants pertaining to the preparation of proposals. The public can make reference to proposals of funded projects via the QEF Cyber Resource Centre (qcrc.qef.org.hk).
QEF deliverables, such as teaching and learning resources, can be purchased by mail or online at the QEF website and Hong Kong Education City (www.hkedcity.net). The QEF has also identified good projects for developing electronic deliverables with interactive functions to facilitate self-directed learning. So far, over 100 sets of electronic deliverables have been developed. The public can access these deliverables via the QEF Cyber Resource Centre and Hong Kong Education City.