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HONG KONG'S schools should get cash bonuses for doing their job well, the Education Commission has recommended in its latest report.

  The revolutionary idea of performance incentives is the main theme of Report No 7, to be released on Tuesday.

  It says schools should be entitled to more funding if they demonstrate an improvement in the quality of education they provide.

  The extra money could be used for additional indoor or outdoor activities or even for building better facilities, it says.

  But winning performance-linked bonuses would not mean teachers and other staff would be paid more.

  And the concept would be put to public debate before the Government made a final decision on it.

  Commission member Cheung Man-kwong said the idea was aimed at producing better education by increasing the amount of competition between schools.

  For example, he said, a school with mainly Band Five students would benefit from the fact that its students were generally producing better results.

  Performance in open examinations, outdoor activities and ethics should be taken as part of the examining criteria, says the report.

  It does not say how much extra funding could be granted. Nor does it mention how the authorities would deal with schools which performed badly or could not produce significant improvement.

  'The main thing is how to provide a fair measurement of schools' education quality,' Mr Cheung said.

  Tik Chi-yuen, a member of the Board of Education, said the idea might be aimed at raising the quality of education, but he doubted it would be practical to offer performance incentives.

  'It will be very difficult to judge whether a school improves its quality,' he said.

  'The only objective measurement available now is open exams.

  'But if the Government focuses only on that, then it will concentrate on academic performance and this will not be good for students.

  'A big question is also whether there is enough manpower to check the performance of all schools.' 



First-class schools bonus