The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee :
The seventh call for applications for grants from the Quality Education Fund (QEF) will start on Saturday (November 1) and close on December 31, 2003. "School-based Management" and "Learning and Teaching Effectiveness" have been designated as two priority themes.
The Chairman of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee, Mr Tai Hay-lap, said that projects under the theme of "School-based Management" should aim to develop effective school-based management systems or models for school improvement and development. This is in step with the prevailing priority of the Administration to enhance schools' self-management and accountability in the context of education reform.
Meanwhile, the theme of "Learning and Teaching Effectiveness" should be targeted at enhancing the quality of learning and teaching, improving student learning outcomes and stretching students' potential.
Mr Tai emphasised that quality proposals other than the two priority themes would also be considered.
The Fund is open to all for applications including schools, tertiary institutions, individuals, public bodies and non-government organisations. Projects will be awarded a maximum of $500,000, while those with exceptional merits a maximum of $5 million.
There will be limitation on the number of applications from eligible applicants to forestall creating excessive workload to them and therefore compromising the quality of the projects. Basically, each applicant can only submit one application provided that he does not have any on-going QEF project on September 1, 2004.
"We will relax the application for grants for conducting air-conditioning projects. Applicant schools are now allowed to submit another application for other education initiatives. A matching grant of 50 per cent of the cost of air-conditioning projects will continue to be provided by the Hong Kong Jockey Club," Mr Tai added.
He advised the schools that wish to install air-conditioners in classrooms to submit applications in this call. The matching grant scheme will be reviewed in the current school year.
Application forms for the seventh call can be downloaded from the QEF website (http://www.info.gov.hk/qef/) or obtained from the QEF Secretariat from November 1, 2003. For enquiries, please contact the QEF Secretariat through the hotline 2921 8833.
The QEF was set up in January 1998 to promote quality education in Hong Kong through the funding of bottom-up initiatives. So far, a total of six calls have been conducted by the QEF with approved grants totalling about $2,900 million for almost 4,900 projects.
End/Thursday, October 30, 2003