教 局 官 員 退 出 英 基 管 委 會

alexlui

From ESF web site, FAQ about ESF's fee increase:

<<The Hong Kong Government has made it clear on a number of occasions that it expects to see improvements in the governance and management of ESF before it will discuss the long-term future of the subvention. We have worked hard on our reform agenda and made good progress – we have improved our services and demonstrated that the subvention is well justified.

Once our new Ordinance has been approved by Legco we hope for clarification on the future of Government funding for ESF. In the meantime – and independent of future subvention trends – we need to increase fees for the reasons stated above.>>

From SCMP today
<<Sarah Rigby, chairwoman of the joint council of parent teacher associations, said the amendments would provide a framework for the ESF to retain its government subvention, which now accounts for 25 per cent of its funding.>>

I think ESF is trying her best to fulfill the requirements of being a public organisation in order to keep the subvention.

alexlui

Below is an email from “Parents For ESF”, please forward the message and letters to other parents if you really care about the removal of subvention.  

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Dear ESF Parent friends:                                             

“Parents For ESF” is a parental group composed of JCPTA Chair and some other PTAs Chair/ vice Chair to concern on ESF’s recurrent government subvention which is now about ~30% of total ESF expenditure. If the subvention is removed, we expect further ~30% fee rise to sustain the quality of education. We have recently taken some actions:
1 Send letter to EMB to query on the 2.8% subvention cut for year 06/07  (letter 1)
2 Send letter to SCMP on this issue  (letter 2)
3 Started to approach some Legco members to get support for recurrent ESF subvention, with positive response (letter 3)     

We will continue to do our best to defend the subvention but your supports and help are essential to the campaign.

Alex Chiu (Parents representative at Legco PAC hearing Jan/05) [email protected]
20/4/2006

** Kindly forward the message and letters to other parents!

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31/3/2006
SCMP

Response to the question “Is the increase in ESF school fees justifiable?”

The question really should be: Is the cut in ESF’s subvention justifiable?

The ESF’s Government subvention represents (or should represent according to the Policy White Paper of 1965) the cost to the EMB of providing a place in an aided school in the Government sector. Now, having gone from approximate parity in the year 01/02, the average subvention per ESF primary student is now $17,100 and per ESF secondary student is $25,700. This will fall further in 06/07 due to the 2.8% ‘efficiency saving’. In comparison, the average ‘unit cost’ of providing a place in an aided primary school was $24,700 and $33,710 in an aided secondary school in 04/05, and has probably risen since these figures were released. Is this cut in ESF subvention justifiable when there has been no change in Government policy?

Further, as stated in the Legco PAC Report, the Secretary for Education and Manpower should ‘seek the approval of the Executive Council and the Legislative Council for changes resulting from the EMB’s review of government subsidies to the ESF’. Is the cut in ESF subvention justifiable when this process has not been followed?

Finally, is this cut in ESF subvention justifiable when ESF schools:
•        educate Hong Kong’s permanent resident English-speaking children,
•        provide an EMI education to Chinese-speaking families who seek to become bilingual or who have spent periods of time overseas, and
•        provide an important attractant to companies wanting to invest in Hong Kong.
What kind of message does this give to the world about how Hong Kong treats its international community?

Sarah Rigby
Chairman Joint Council of Parent Teacher Associations
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Letter To LEGCO Members:                                         Apr 2006
                        
ESF SUBVENTION
In the ESF Foundation meeting held in Dec/05, the EMB representative expressed its intention to remove/phase out the ESF government recurrent subvention after the new ESF Ordinance bill has been passed in Legco later this year, the reason being that the ESF is “teaching non-local curriculum and so not entitled to subvention”. We think this is unreasonable, short-sighted, and would incur loss to the community. We as ESF parents strongly object the EMB’s intention.

1. The ESF has long been subvented schools and teaching non-local curriculum since its establishment in 1967. It now composes of 16 schools serving 12500 students from over 50 nationalities, of whom most are HK permanent resident. The ESF has very important role to HK education and society:
  1/ Provide the ONLY affordable choice for thousands of non-Chinese ethnic/speaking children
  2/ Provide the ONLY affordable choice for many returnee children who could not fit in local system
  3/ Provide the Alternative choice of good quality English/Liberal education for Chinese students. This is exactly what EMB promote diversity of education for parent choices. The ESF also serve to relieve the demand pressure on local EMI schools.
  4/ To attract overseas talents/investment and maintain HK as an Asia international city.

2. We are middle class taxpayers and mostly educated/professionals. Our children’s education rights are the same as the near 1 million local subvented school students. It would be obviously unreasonable to remove our children’s subsidies/basic rights while we are subsidizing other children. Actually our children are currently receiving LESS subsidies per head than local school students. The ESF education is in fact Good value for money for the government and community.
(year2003/04: Primary-ESF/Aided $21097/23592  Secondary-ESF/Aided $29678/33637)

3. ESF parents/students are satisfied with the liberal style education provided by the schools, and with the good academic results. The teachers are professional and dedicated. We treasure the schools community and teachers.

4. The ESF accepted the criticism of the Audit report and Legco PAC report on the management problem with numerous action plans have been implemented to comply most of the PAC suggestions. Radical governance reform will be accomplished. Teacher’s salaries are also cut painfully (~ 9.2%).

In conclusion, the ESF is a HK institution serving HK people, contributing significantly to HK education, and to maintain HK as an international city. We also don’t want our children’s rights to be deprived. We plead with your support on continued government subvention to ESF which will benefit the next next generations of HK children.  

ALEX CHIU (Parent Representative at Legco PAC Hearing Jan/05)<[email protected]>
On behalf of “Parents For ESF”               
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