Foundation to seek funding for upgrades
The English Schools Foundation is planning to ask the government for funding towards the cost of upgrading the buildings of two popular schools in Kowloon.
The ESF is drawing up plans to unite Kowloon Junior School, which now operates across two sites - at Perth Street and Rose Street - in one new building at Perth Street, and for the expansion of King George V School in Ho Man Tin.
The HK$220 million plan for the King George campus would provide new science labs and a performing arts theatre plus extra classrooms for up to 150 more students. Rebuilding Kowloon Junior would cost HK$400 million.
Chief executive Heather Du Quesnay said: 'The science labs at KGV are very old - they are Dickensian - and the performing arts facilities are pretty basic.'
Chief financial officer Robert Bennett said the ESF aimed to submit the plans, which were in the detailed design stage, to the government over the next 18 months and to the Legislative Council's public works subcommittee towards the end of next year. It would ask the government to provide funding at the same level as for a local school and the ESF would meet the remainder of the cost itself.
If approved, the new buildings were expected to open by September 2012.
