Short budget puts early education plan at risk, lawmaker says
Lawmaker arguing for more help for parents with burden of kindergarten fees doubts government is willing to increase spending
The government's reluctance to increase the budget for kindergarten education is one of the most worrying problems facing a plan to introduce free preschool education by 2017, said a lawmaker who has been in discussions with the government on the issue.
The proposal is expected to cost about HK$5 billion, double the HK$2.3 billion a year the government currently pays parents, the Civic Party's Dr Kenneth Chan Ka-lok said.
Chan said the government's unwillingness to pay more surfaced at a meeting he attended on October 15 with Dr Moses Cheng Mo-chi, chairman of the Committee on Free Kindergarten Education, and members including three former or current education officials.
"When [Cheng] told me the estimate, the government officials all shook their heads," he said. "It appeared to me that they were hesitant over increasing the budget."
Cheng's committee was set up to study free kindergarten education as part of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's election policy.
In July last year, Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim told lawmakers at a Legislative Council meeting that he was confident the policy would be introduced in 2017.
The current budget for kindergarten education is used mainly to provide vouchers for parents to cover part or all of the tuition fees.