ESF hankers for public funding, despite Eddie Ng's comments

The English Schools Foundation is banking on its strengths to secure continued public funding, despite the government's plan to phase out its HK$283 million annual subsidy.

Education chief Eddie Ng Hak-kim has said it is not government policy to provide subsidies to schools that offer a non-local curriculum, as the ESF does.

He also ruled out treating the foundation like direct-subsidy schools (DSS), as they are required to teach a local curriculum. But ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay said yesterday that the ESF schools, with their 13,000 students, were a part of Hong Kong.

"We were established by ordinance in 1967 to offer an education in the medium of English to students who can benefit from it. That is ... not just for expatriates but for any child in Hong Kong who could speak English and wanted an English education. So our history is all about serving local people."

But she acknowledged that it would be "challenging" to get anywhere near the subvention level for DSS schools, which receive government money but operate mostly like private schools.

Both sides are now working to establish a funding level based on the ESF's specific areas of service, including special needs education, teaching of Chinese to non-Chinese speakers, continuing professional development for teachers, students' welfare - including counselling - learning technology, mother tongue support for students whose native language is not English, and applied learning.

"We will see what total amount of money that would generate," she said.