HK Budget – $52.2b Earmarked for Education; Internet Subsidies for Poor Children

Hong Kong – Hong Kong’s poorest schoolchildren will receive subsidies to help them go on-line, Financial Secretary John Tsang said.

Eligible families — those on welfare with children of primary and secondary school age — will be entitled to claim $1,300 for per family for broadband access, he said. The funding is part of the more than $50 billion allocated to education in the coming financial year. A total of $500 million has been earmarked for start-up capital for collaboration between the non-governmental sector and private companies to provide economical Internet services.

General expenditure on education has increased by 18 pct in the past 10 years. The government estimated that recurrent expenditure on education, health and social welfare for 2010-11 will reach around $130 billion, taking up the largest share of recurrent government expenditure. Education alone accounted for $52.2 billion.

Hong Kong’s 12 universities and tertiary institutions were allocated $1 billion for a fifth Matching Grant Scheme (MGS), a programme launched in 2003 whereby the government partly or fully matches funds raised by individual colleges.

Since its inception, institutions have so far secured about $10.8 billion, comprising $3.9 billion in government matching grants and $6.9 billion in private donations.

Tsang said the government would boost funding for School-based After-school Learning and Support Programmes for needy students. To promote bilingual and trilingual proficiency, $500 million will go to the Language Fund both in schools and the workplace to promote both English and Chinese language proficiency.