15 Feb 2006

All schools get sufficient funding

1. Madam Liang raised two questions in her letter about the number of years school principals serve in their schools and the amount of operating grants that primary schools get. (“Is every primary school getting the same amount of operating grant?”, SM, 24/1).
2. We assure Madam Liang that the Ministry of Education (MOE) plans the succession of school leaders in our schools very carefully. We need to balance between leadership stability and the injection of new ideas and perspectives, as well as the overall needs of the Education Service. As such, the Ministry will typically rotate our Principals in primary schools after a term of around 6 to 7 years.
3. MOE ensures that every school receives sufficient funding based on the number of students and number of staff they have. Schools can make use of these funding for their operational costs, including running CCA programmes.
4. Schools decide on the number and types of activities for their CCA and enrichment programmes. In making these decisions, they take into consideration the expertise and resources available in their schools and the interests and needs of their pupils. Some schools have niche areas and may decide to allocate more of their resources to these areas. No school has an identical mix of programmes.
5. We encourage Madam Liang to contact the school she has written about on its activities and CCAs.

Sum Chee Wah (Ms)
Director, Education Programmes