Union calls for insurance cover after string of school computer thefts
The Education and Manpower Bureau has been urged to buy insurance to cover information technology facilities at schools after a survey found almost a quarter had been burgled.
In the latest incident reported yesterday five projectors and six computers, including four notebooks, worth a total of $210,000, were stolen from a secondary school in Tsz Wan Shan.
Officers were called to the Church of Christ in China Heep Woh College in Po Kong Village Road when staff arrived for work to discover three classrooms on different floors had been broken into.
Of 376 schools that replied to a Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union (PTU) questionnaire, 102 said they had been burgled.
Of those, 14 had been burgled twice. One school in Sham Shui Po had three break-ins in one year, with losses totalling $40,000.
Eighteen schools said they had lost goods valued at more than $100,000. Black spots include Western District, Sha Tin, Tai Po and Sham Shui Po.
PTU executive member Lee Fu-sing said video projectors, notebook computers and other expensive information technology equipment were the most popular targets because they could be sold easily.
'It looks like these burglaries have been organised, as some of the methods were very similar,' said Mr Lee.
PTU chairman Cheung Man-kwong said the Education and Manpower Bureau should consider buying insurance for all schools because the government would soon allocate subsidies for schools to buy IT equipment.
'These facilities have become a teaching necessity, but they are not covered by the government's insurance policy. Insurance premiums for this sort of equipment have increased a lot in recent years, so schools might not be able to afford them. And it's cheaper for the government to do it collectively.'
Schools should step up security measures, he said, and police commissioner Dick Lee Ming-kwai had promised to increase police patrols at black spots.
The Education and Manpower Bureau said in a written reply that it was impractical for the bureau to collectively buy insurance for schools; schools could cover insurance and step up security measures with government subsidies.
