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| December 1999 Alternative View on Education By Crystal Tang RELATED ARTICLE:
Article from the
same section: The third call for applications for the Quality Education Fund occurred this year from 4 October to 30 November. But for a long time, there was controversy about fairness in distributing the funds. Mr. Kung Hing-wing, principal of Lok Sin Tong Young Ko Hsiao Lin Secondary School, said his school could hardly benefit from the fund. “As our thought is different from that of the Committee members, our project can hardly be approved although the idea of the project is good,” he said. Another principal, who requested anonymity, agreed that the Fund would only subsidize those projects which fit the goals of the fund. According to him, no experts were invited or meetings held to see if the funds were fairly granted. Mr. Sheik Abdul Ahmet Grafoor, secretary of the fund, explained there were assessment criteria for applications. Degree of innovation and teachers’ involvement were of concern. Cost effectiveness was another criterion. Said Mr. Gafoor: “QEF would not fund a $2 million project which could be beneficial only to 20 students.” Mr. Gafoor said they looked for projects that could benefit as many people as possible. For example, it would be good if some of the teaching equipment of the projects could be used by other schools. Effectiveness in using the funds is another contentious point. Mr. Gafoor said there is a system for monitoring the grantees after the schools receive the funds. Successful applicants are required to sign an agreement with the trustee of the find. They have to submit a statement of accounts and progress reports periodically. Said Mr. Gafoor: “During the first call, 99.5 percent of the funded schools were visited. We kept an eye on them to ensure the money was fully utilized. “We stop funding them when we find something wrong.” As the government has been enhancing information technology in schools for the past few years, funds will not concentrate on projects in this category in the third call for applications. “Schools can easily get computer hardware from the government now, so we would like to support software rather than hardware this time.” However, Mr. Gafoor denied that no more funds would be offered to projects in information technology. Apart from this change, the fund is going to set up the Outstanding School Awards and the Outstanding Teacher Awards this year. “Our objective is to recognize and encourage the schools that have excellent performance. “We hope schools can learn from the winners to improve themselves afterwards,” Mr. Grafoor said. In the future, promotion of the fund will be important, since there was a survey which reported that 60 percent of schools still hadn’t applied for the funds. Said Mr. Sheik: “We are cooperating with The Chinese University of Hong Kong to launch a website for the fund. It will be ready in January 2000. “We also hold seminars, exhibitions and workshops for schools to share their experiences.” The fund was launched 2 years ago. Mr. Grafoor was satisfied with the achievements. Said he: “Students in Ko Lui Middle School, for example, didn’t like going to school. After funding the establishment of the school band, they loved going to school. “The students wrote songs and recorded CDs themselves. They were happy and confident when their families came to see their shows.” He said by funding the schools, students discover their interests, think creatively and independently, and develop a sense of responsibility. Mr. Chan Chi-kwan, professor in the Department of Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said introducing the concept of quality education to the teachers was important. He said that some teachers were not enthusiastic about launching activities; thus changing their minds was the fund’s first step. Dr. Winnie Lai, professor of the Department of Curriculum Studies at Hong Kong University, supports the fund. “It’s still too early to tell the effectiveness of the fund. But it has already made noise in society about quality education.” |
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