♦ Will direct appointment to promotion ranks be taken as a regular practice, or should it be approved by the IMC on an individual case basis, subject to consultation with the staff?
♦ Have all the implementation criteria and procedures been cautiously deliberated and endorsed by the IMC, and agreed by the staff?
♦ A good practice of direct appointment should include the following features:
1. The criteria of appointment are drawn up jointly with staff concerned.
2. The process of direct appointment is conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner.
3. The selection is undertaken by a selection committee comprising the principal, IMC manager(s) and/or other independent personnel or professional, and is closely monitored by the IMC.
4. Morale of the existing staff has been taken care of.
Suggested Workflow for Direct Appointment to Promotion Rank
Disagree
Agree with sound justifications
where circumstances warrant Discussion for the setting
up a mechanism for direct appointment to promotion
Proposal shelved
Set criteria and procedures for direct appointment
Appointment of selection committee by the IMC
Conduct interview and make recommendation to the IMC
Appointment completed
Keep selection records for inspection, when Open Recruitment
Exercise
every effort to absorb the redundant teachers such as appointing the teachers to share jobs on a voluntary basis or by using other school funds. For schools operated under big sponsoring body (i.e. operating more than one school), arrangement should be made to deploy their redundant teachers to fill available vacancies in other schools under the same sponsoring body as far as possible.
Identifying Redundant Teachers
2. For schools having redundant teachers, the IMCs should, in consultation with teachers, work out a set of “school-based” criteria (e.g. school’s operational needs, subject specialties of teachers and the developmental requirements of schools, etc) which are objective, fair and transparent so as to identify the sequence of teachers to become redundant.
3. IMCs are also required to set up an appeal mechanism to serve as an effective channel for teachers to communicate with the school management on issue relating to redundancy. For schools operated under sponsoring bodies that operate more than one school, IMCs should ensure that both the criteria and the appeal mechanism are applied consistently as far as possible in all the schools under the same sponsor.
4. The criteria and appeal mechanism should be in place, documented and announced to all teachers as early as possible. This will facilitate early identification of and notification to redundant teachers after the staff establishment for the school year concerned is approved.
Deployment of Redundant Teacher by School Sponsoring Bodies
5. Under the existing rule and practice, a school sponsoring body operating more than one school should arrange to deploy redundant teachers in a school under its sponsorship to fill available vacancies in other schools under its sponsorship as far as possible.
6. If the redundant teachers out-number the vacancies, the school sponsoring body should also put in place a set of criteria to deploy the redundant teachers to fill all the vacancies available among the schools under its sponsorship based on the needs of schools.
IMCs should ensure that schools would complete the deployment arrangements in accordance with the schedule set by the Education and Manpower Bureau each year as announced through circular as far as possible so as to facilitate timely application for
in accordance with the Code of Aid and the Guides to Appointment for the respective ranks currently in force. Like regular full-time teachers, regular part-time teachers within the approved teaching establishment are subject to the provisions under the Code of Aid, including (a) eligibility for joining the Grant/Subsidized Schools Provident Fund or relevant provident fund schemes as appropriate, (b) entitlement of various types of leave such as paid sick leave, and (c) their relevant part-time teaching experience being recognised on a pro-rata basis for incremental and promotion purposes.
Over-ranked Principals/Redundant Senior Teachers Required to Step-down
9. In the event that reduction of staff entitlement affects the number of senior teachers (i.e.
teachers appointed at promotion ranks) and/or the headship entitlement of a school, a school sponsoring body operating more than one school should transfer the redundant senior teachers to fill available senior teacher vacancies in other schools under its sponsorship and consider to deploy Principals so that the substantive rank of the head of the school does not exceed the headship entitlement. However, for schools operated by one-school sponsors, or where there are no available senior teacher vacancies and/or vacancies of appropriate headship rank in schools under the same sponsor for deployment, the redundant senior teachers should step down to become the lower or basic rank teachers as appropriate and the over-ranked Principals should assume posts of an appropriate lower rank.
10. Schools should observe all other related arrangements in respect of stepping down of Principals/senior teachers to a lower rank as announced by the Permanent Secretary through circular from time to time.
discontinue taking up duties of a higher rank), there are broadly two circumstances leading to step down/change of rank: -
(1) Redundancy
Reduction of classes that affects the headship entitlement and/or the number and rank of promotion posts;
(2) Unsatisfactory performance
The staff member concerned is either not performing satisfactorily in his/her current position or not meeting the expected and agreed standard that the current position requires.
♦ In handling stepping-down cases arising from (1) above , IMCs should follow the procedures stipulated in relevant circulars in force for secondary, special and primary schools as appropriate.
♦ Prior to the setting-up of a formal mechanism for stepped-down or change of rank among staff arising from (2) above , the IMC should consult its staff on the needs and advantages of establishing such a staff management system in the school, having regard to such considerations as school operation and development, fairness to appointment, human resources planning, staff management, and the morale of the existing staff, etc.
♦ The IMC should also consider the subject in conjunction wi th the school’s availability and sophistication of an objective appraisal system, continuous professional development mechanism and appeal system. The stepped-down or change of rank mechanism should be conscientiously made and agreed by the IMC with sound justifications and be supported by an overwhelming majority of the staff.
♦ All staff have to be clearly informed of the rationale and criteria for stepped-down or change of rank which are made on the principles of fairness, objectivity and transparency.
Checklist
♦ Have sufficient warning, grace period and adequate opportunity for appeal been given
♦ Are the staff content that fair and impartial stepped-down/change of rank procedures which are developed beforehand be put in place?
Good Practice of Stepping-down
♦ It is desirable to stipulate in the employment contract the disciplinary procedures, including demotion, to be followed
♦ The IMC should, in consultation with the staff, jointly draw up a set of stepped- down/change of rank criteria which are objective, fair and transparent.
♦ The process of stepped-down/change of rank should be conducted in a fair and objective manner.
♦ Stepped-down can only be justified by unsatisfactory performance of the staff concerned for the past and present years, and such evidence of performance must be assessed through a formal appraisal system.
♦ An appeal system must be set up for the staff concerned to defend or redress their cases.
♦ Clear stipulation is to be included in the Employment Contract/Letter of Appointment that the provision for future stepped-down/change of rank from a promoted post is possible, as and when situation so warrants.
♦ Provision should be included in the Confirmation Letter for Promotion that stepped-down/change of rank is possible should one fail to perform satisfactorily, or up to the agreed expectation.
♦ Written confirmation should be mutually signed by both the IMC and the staff concerned should stepped-down/change of rank take place, which will serve as an agreement for change of employment terms.
♦ Other than change of remuneration as a result of change of rank, no adverse effect should be made against the fringe benefits of the staff concerned, for example the number of service years counting for provident fund contribution.
♦ The rank changed should normally be one rank lower than the staff’s existing rank.
♦ The change of rank should take effect on a date specified by the IMC and, as far as practicable, agreeable to the staff.
Disagree
Agree
Not substantiated
Substantiated
Stepped-down/change of rank on grounds of performance
Redundancy
Discussion in the IMC for the setting up of a
mechanism for
Follow
relevant circulars in force for handling Case
closed
1. Conduct investigation/
evaluation on the staff’s past and present performance 2. Interview with the staff
concerned
3. Make recommendation to IMC
Case closed Setting up of an
evaluation committee
Set criteria for stepped-down /change of rank (in consultation with
Appeal system
Issue of confirmation letter for Give warning/grace period
No improvement despite warning and grace period
Improvement
the Funds which are statutory rules made under the Education Ordinance. The following are extracts of certain main features for easy reference only.
1. With effect from 1 September 1980, Government's subsidies towards the employers' contribution in respect of the Grant/Subsidised Schools Provident Fund shall be made in accordance with the following scale :
Length of continuous contributory service
Employers' contribution (percentage of employees' salary)
Less than ten years 5%
Not less than 10 years ) 10%
but less than 15 years )
Not less than 15 years 15%
2. Employees' contribution shall remain at 5%.
3. Every teacher who is not over the age of 55 years upon his first appointment to a school on or after 24 June 1982 is required to contribute to the Fund. A part-time teacher employed on a regular basis may at his option contribute to the provident fund.
4. An annual dividend to each contributor of 5 per cent of his account is guaranteed and any shortfall in funds for the purpose of the guaranteed dividend is to be met by a loan (repayable without interest) made by the Government to the Funds. No supplementary dividend may be declared if there is an outstanding loan.