Nothing new in budget, critics say
The government announced more than HK$28.5 billion in education spending this week but only HK$63 million of it is a new commitment.
The education sector expressed disappointment with the budget, saying there was 'nothing new' and describing it as a 'political facelift'.
In his budget speech, Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah earmarked HK$63 million to boost internet education for students. The one-year programme is aimed at teaching youngsters 'how to use the internet appropriately and safely'.
Mr Tsang said the government planned to invest HK$21 million more on top of the existing HK$46 million spending to boost national education. This would provide more opportunities for teachers and students to join mainland exchange programmes and study trips. However, the initiative had already been announced in October's policy address.
Mr Tsang also reiterated the initiative to set up a HK$18 billion research endowment fund to replace existing research funding, even though he had already announced it in last year's budget speech.
He also repeated the government's total spending plan to help schools prepare for the new senior secondary curriculum and universities to expand their campuses under the new academic structure.
About HK$2 billion in additional recurrent funding was set aside for schools to meet the new demands posed by the education reforms , Mr Tsang said.
There was also a plan to invest HK$950 million in measures to support the medium-of-instruction arrangements for secondary schools and English classes in primary schools.
Lawmaker for the education sector, Democrat Cheung Man-kwong, said he was disappointed with the budget and would mobilise his party to vote against it during the Legislative Council debate in April.
'There is nothing new in the budget. This is a political facelift as it gives the public a wrong impression that the government is committing new resources to the sector,' Mr Cheung said.
He said the HK$2 billion to meet demands of the new academic structure was not a new commitment as the money would have to come from internal resources.
He also said the fine-tuning of the medium of instruction policy would need to go through further public consultation and that he did not understand the rationale for allotting HK$63 million to boost internet education.
'I don't know what there is to teach students about internet security as they are more aware of issues such as viruses than the older generation.'
Michael Wong Wai-yu, chairman of Hong Kong Association of Heads of Secondary Schools, said: 'There are virtually no extra resources being dedicated to the sector this year.'
He said secondary schools would face an acute shortage of classrooms for double cohorts in 2012.
This is the transitional year when Form Seven students take A-levels while Form Six students take the new school-leaving diploma.
Falling short The financial secretary announced education spending of HK$28.5b Commitments not previously announced amount to, in HK dollars, only: $63m
