The Quality Education Fund (QEF) will adopt a more strategic approach in funding projects and regular reviews will be conducted to ensure that the fund will yield a maximum impact on education in Hong Kong.
Irving Koo, chairman of the QEF Steering Committee, made the remarks Sunday when he announced the outcomes of the reviews on the QEF and the way forward for the fund.
To help reflect and consolidate its experience after five years of operation, the QEF Steering Committee decided last year to conduct a comprehensive review of the operations of the QEF.
The committee engaged the Management Services Agency (MSA) to carry out a process re-engineering review, the Melbourne University Private (MUP) to study the evaluation methodology for QEF projects, and ACNielsen to conduct a users opinion survey.
"It is particularly pleasing to note the comments of the MUP that the QEF had had a significant impact on education in Hong Kong and had brought about culture change in the school sector," Koo said.
Recommendations of the MSA and the MUP included the amalgamation of the present sub-committees of the QEF Steering Committee, the enhancement of support services for the applicants and the adoption of an appeal system on procedural matters.
Turning to the opinion survey, Koo said it was completed with ahigh response rate of 67 percent out of a survey population of 7,545.
"We are pleased to note that over 90 percent of the respondents appreciated the value of the fund and were satisfied with its performance. They recognized the positive impact of the fund on school resources, school culture, teachers' professional development and teaching effectiveness," he said.
He said that the recommendations of the studies and the survey were very useful materials in the deliberation of the way forward for the QEF.
More assistance will be provided to schools and dissemination of good project outcome will be enhanced. Efforts will continue to be made to enhance the transparency of the operation of the fund, Koo said.
The QEF was set up in 1998 with a capital grant of 5 billion HK dollars (US$641 million) to fund bottom-up initiatives which would promote quality education in Hong Kong.
So far, a total of five calls have been made and the QEF has approved grants totaling about 2.8 billion HK dollars (US$359 million) for more than 4,600 projects.
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2002)
