School fees will not be increased in the Budget, says chief
Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung says he does not plan to increase school tuition fees to help tackle the budget deficit.
Professor Li had earlier proposed a review of the fees, saying they could be increased to help cut the budget deficit. The proposal caused an uproar among students and professors.
But now he says an increase would not help much because more families would apply for subsidies due to economic hardship.
'It will also be unreasonable to cut subsidies to all secondary and primary schools, considering that they are already getting less government aid than tertiary education,' Professor Li said.
'I have already proposed it to Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, but it's up to him to decide.'
Legislator Cheung Man-kong said he supported Professor Li's idea because there had been staunch opposition from students.
'The financial secretary should also be sensitive to public sentiment and be aware of any general opposition to any increase in tuition fees,' Mr Cheung said.
English Schools Foundation (ESF) chairman Jal Shroff said he was happy with Professor Li's latest comments.
The ESF receives $300 million in subsidies a year. The foundation has 16 primary and secondary schools with 11,500 students.
The ESF's financing has been undergoing a review by the Education and Manpower Bureau. Fees could surge by 40 per cent if its subsidies are scrapped completely.
'Professor Li has been very reasonable in our negotiations, but it's hard to say whether the government will cut our subsidies,' Mr Shroff said.
But Professor Li said cutting education spending would be inevitable as it accounted for 24 per cent of government expenditure. Twelve village schools had been forced to close because of insufficient admissions.
'The economy is slow and the government is going to slash expenditure by $20 billion by 2006. But I do not believe there will be drastic cuts in education expenditure as Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa recognises the importance of education,' Professor Li said.
He said there should be a review of resource allocation to the eight universities because some faculties had over-lapping courses.
'The University Grants Committee and the universities are negotiating to achieve higher efficiency,' he said.