EDUCATION BUREAU
CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM NO. 65/2021
From : Permanent Secretary for Education To : Supervisors and heads of all government, aided and caput schools and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme
Ref. : EDB(ESP)/SALSP/11/3/1(1) Date : 11 June 2021
School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes 2021/22 School Year
Summary
This circular memorandum invites schools to apply for the School-based Grant (SBG) under the School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes (Programme) for the 2021/22 school year to complement the after- school activities they organise for the disadvantaged students.
Details
Objectives of the Programme
2. To support needy students to participate in after-school activities with a view to facilitating their whole-person and all-round development, the Education Bureau (EDB) has implemented the Programme since the 2005/06 school year.
Currently, EDB provides SBG and Community-based Project Grant for public sector schools (including special schools) as well as schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) respectively to organise school-based and district-based activities for needy students. The target students of the Programme are those Primary 1 to Secondary 6 students in receipt of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) and full grant under the Student Financial Assistance (SFA) Schemes. For details, please visit the relevant EDB website (http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/salsp).
Flexibility
3. To extend the benefits to more students who are not in receipt of CSSA or full grant of SFA Schemes but identified by schools as needy students requiring greater care, schools are given discretionary quota. Such quota has been increased from 10% to 25% starting from the 2014/15 school year to benefit more students. Besides, schools may utilise SBG for procurement of necessary
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items/equipment as appropriate (such as sports equipment, educational toys, chess sets and books, snacks and beverages, etc.), and for subsidising the travelling expenses of individual students in after-school activities. However, these types of expenses must be relevant to the needs of the activities and are only applicable to the disadvantaged students who participate in after-school activities. In order to avoid the aforesaid expenses being out of proportion with SBG provided, they should be capped at 5% of the total provision of SBG.
Special Arrangement of Incentive Funding
4. Under the prevailing arrangement, we have been providing participating schools with incentive funding based on their annual accounts of the most recent year and taking into account the utilisation of SBG. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, after-school activities organised for the needy students by schools might be affected due to the class suspension/half-day face-to-face schooling, and the schools’ normal utilisation of SBG may not be truly reflected in the audited accounts of the 2019/20 school year. In this connection, a special arrangement is made by considering the annual accounts of the most recent three years1 of the participating schools for the utilisation of SBG to determine whether schools are eligible for the SBG incentive funding in the 2021/22 school year for supporting needy students’ whole-person development.
5. Specifically, EDB will consider schools’ utilisation rate2 of SBG in the 2019/20 school year or the average utilisation rate of the 2018/19 and 2017/18 school years, whichever is higher. If participating schools have reached an 80%
or above utilisation rate, the annual subsidy rate of each eligible student will be increased from $400 to $600 and the schools concerned will also be provided with the 25% of additional SBG funding from discretionary quota which is calculated at the rate of $600 per eligible student. The SBG of the remaining participating schools will be calculated at the rate of $400 per eligible student per annum.
Application for School-based Grant
6. Schools are invited to complete the attached Reply Form and return it to the Extended Support Programmes Section on or before 25 June 2021. In line
1 For aided and caput schools and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme, the annual accounts are compiled on the basis of school year and the latest three annual accounts submitted by schools are those for the school years of 2019/20, 2018/19 and 2017/18. As for government schools, their accounts are compiled on the basis of financial year and the latest three annual accounts available are those for the financial years of 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19.
2 Utilisation rate is calculated on the basis of total actual expenditure and total entitled provision of the year.
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with the existing practice, we will arrange for disbursement of grant and inform participating schools of the detailed calculation in end-July 2021.
Community-based Projects
7. For schools that collaborate with NGOs in organising Community-based Projects in the 2021/22 school year, they are expected to monitor the progress of the projects and the performance of NGOs. They should maintain close communication with the NGOs concerned so as to ensure that the service provided could cater for the diverse needs of their needy students. Starting from the 2017/18 school year, refinements to financial arrangements under the Community- based Projects have been introduced to facilitate more effective implementation of the Community-based Projects through among others, adjusting the percentage of the three payment instalments and the due date for NGOs’ submission of annual accounts, etc. For details, please refer to the Guideline for Community-based Projects available on EDB website (http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/salsp → Community-based Projects).
Enquiries
8. For enquiries, please contact the Extended Support Programmes Section at 2892 6653.
Benjamin YUNG
for Permanent Secretary for Education encl.
c.c. Heads of sections – for information
Reply Form
(To be returned on or before 25 June 2021) To: Permanent Secretary for Education
[Attn: Senior Education Officer (Extended Support Programmes)]
Education Bureau
Room 1141, 11/F, Wu Chung House 213 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai, HK (Fax No. 3107 1306)
School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes 2021/22 School Year
(please put a “”in the appropriate box)
□ My school, in compliance with the requirements of the Programme, applies for the School-based Grant to organise school-based after-school activities for eligible students.
□ My school does not wish to receive the School-based Grant.
Reason(s):
Signature of Supervisor:
Name of Supervisor:
Name of School:
School Code:
School Tel. No.:
Date: School chop
Points to note:
1. The provision of the School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes is complementary in nature. To cater for the diverse needs of needy students, schools are encouraged to flexibly deploy their resources and/or participate in various funding schemes launched by the Government/charitable organisations.
2. Schools should enable the stakeholders including parents to understand how schools organise after-school activities to support needy students so as to further enhance transparency.
Besides, schools are required to include in their Annual School Plan the arrangements of their school-based programme and upload their Annual School Plan onto their website by end-October 2021. Schools should conduct annual review on their school-based programme and reflect the outcomes in their School Report, which has to be uploaded onto their website not later than end-November 2021. Failing this will result in the clawback of the School-based Grant disbursed for the 2021/22 school year.
3. Schools may retain the unutilised amount of the School-based Grant subject to its not exceeding the total provision of the Grant for the current year. The excessive amount will be subject to clawback by EDB. For government schools, the said arrangement is based on financial year.
