ESF Subvention - How important is it really?

[testuser]

After reviewing the list of candidates for the ESF Board of Governors this weekend it appears that everyone has an unhealthy fixation with the subvention / subsidy.

According to the attached graph, it is $20K for primary per year ( 2K per month x 10 months ) and $28K for secondary year students ( 3K per month x 10 months).

While I can understand that a fee increase of that amount would place some burden on parents with multiple kids in the ESF system, I do think that this is an amount that with a little bit of financial planning, can be managed.

From their annual report:

Government subvention remained at a level consistent with last year, with an additional HK$600,000 grant
received for the Learning Support Centre at West Island School. Including hardship allowance and refund of rates
and rent from Government, total grants received by ESF during the year were HK$286.8m (2008-09: HK$287.1m).

With 12,700 children enrolled, that accounts for approximately 22K per student per year.

As a parent, I wonder how much different things would be if the ESF just gave up on its annual pursuit for government handouts and focused internally on the quality of education, governance, infrastructure, staffing as opposed to the external and now annual distraction of the subvention.

Just opening up a topic for debate.... don't panic.

 

[Editor1]

Taken from today's SCMP

Deadlock over future ESF subsidies
Rather than losing government funds, foundation wants amounts matching Direct Subsidy Scheme


Updated on Nov 23, 2011

Negotiations between the English Schools Foundation and the government over whether ESF schools should continue to receive government funding are deadlocked, with the clock ticking on an earlier goal of finalising reform details by the end of this year.

The government is considering whether funding should cease in the long term, while the ESF wants an increase to a level equal to the subsidies received by Direct Subsidy Scheme schools in the government system.

The government has yet to set out conditions for the funding to stay and the two sides have yet to reach agreement on how schools should be better regulated if it does remain, ESF officials say.

The uncertainty may hamper drafting of a plan for development of the foundation's schools for the next three years.

"We will continue our discussions with [the Education Bureau] and negotiate for a sustainable and recurrent subvention," ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay, who has strongly objected to removal of the subsidies, said yesterday.

Du Quesnay said that instead of accepting the loss of the government money, the school operator was demanding an increase to a level on a par with schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme - now about double the amount received by the ESF.

She said the foundation was willing to accept more monitoring and supervision if its own control over curriculum and the pay, recruitment and professional development of staff could be maintained.

In this academic year, DSS schools receive HK$35,200 for each primary pupil and HK$43,890 for each secondary pupil. The ESF got HK$17,757 and HK$23,659 respectively, an ESF spokeswoman said.

In a letter received by parents this week, Du Quesnay wrote that the board had been at pains to put forward its case to retain and increase the subsidy.

Earlier this year, the government proposed reviewing the future of ESF schools, raising the possibility that the foundation should ultimately become self-financing. This poses questions on how the city will be able to maintain adequate opportunities for non-Chinese-speaking pupils, who now go to ESF schools, to receive a quality education.

The authorities also proposed in July that under planned reform, ESF schools would have to sign time-definite service agreements with the government in order to improve accountability. The government said this should take place in the next academic year.

Du Quesnay said yesterday that the ESF was willing to sign service agreements setting out programmes of activities and financial monitoring arrangements. The Education Bureau declined to comment.

 

[Editor1]

Delay in Decision on ESF Tuition Fees

Mar 06, 2012

From SCMP.

The English Schools Foundation cannot tell parents yet how much they will have to pay in the next academic year as talks with the Education Bureau on financial support have been deadlocked.

ESF parents usually would have been told by now what sort of fees they could be facing.

But ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay said yesterday the foundation would write to them shortly to inform them of a delay.

She said: "The board can't make a decision in a vacuum.

"We are looking at the economic situation, what other schools are doing, and taking these factors into account before making a decision on the fees."

The key issue remains whether the government will continue to pay its annual subsidy of HK$284 million to the foundation.

Amid public debates about the role of the ESF, widely seen as a legacy of the colonial era, the government decided last July to review the subvention arrangement.

A decision was expected months ago. But ESF chairman Carlson Tong Ka-shing noted the lack of progress yesterday. "We have tried very hard since last July to engage the Education Bureau to try to have a conclusion on the subvention, but unfortunately the Legislative Council panel hearing has been delayed.

"It does not look like subvention will be decided in the next few months."