What is a Levy and Debenture?

[Eupheme]

I am non-native english speaker and do not understand the difference between Levy and Debenture. Please help me clarify.

I would also like to hear comments from parents who sent their child(ren) to local Nursery/Kindergarten in order for them to learn cantonese and madarin and who then sent them to international primary school. How was it? Useful? Does your child speaks good cantonese (and may be little mandarin)?



PS: Please forgive my poor english!

 

[Eupheme]

Anyone can help, please?

 

[Sleuth]

I took the definitions from this:
http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCM...=Home&specName=Good+Schools+Guide+(June+2009)


Fees and debentures The tuition fees quoted in this guide are for the 2009-10 school year unless otherwise indicated. They may still be subject to Education Bureau approval. Fees do not include other charges. Many schools charge separately for books, stationery and other services, as well as non-refundable registration fees. Many require parents to buy debentures, usually refundable, to secure their children's places. These are designed to help cover capital costs. Some let parents pay annual, non-refundable capital levies instead.

From the kindergatens we looked at, the pure kindergartens didn't charge either. The ones attached to upper schools charged them. More charged the levy than the deb. And, confusingly, some of the levys are refundable.

 

[dede]

They mean different things to different schools. Take levy as an example, there is annual levy, which, in most cases, is on top of monthly tuition and non-refundable; there is also a lump sum levy, like the ESP's proposed one, which is refundable. Debenture is generally a loan to the school. The general levy proposed by ESP is in fact such a loan. General levy is generally refundable but not transferable. There is another type of capital levy which has some fancy names such as corporate nomination right (CIS), capital note (ISF) and capital debenture (Canadian IS). They are transferable. In a way they can be viewed as investments items (e.g. price for CIS's CNR has increased from HK$0.6m to HK$3.8m in less than 6 years, and ISF's capital note has gone all the way from HK$0.2m to around $1.8m in some three years). To make things complicated, some schools like the Australian IS have introduced a variety of debentures such as depreciating debenture (debenture depreciating at a fixed rate, i.e. the longer one's kids stay at the school, the less the parent will get back at the end of the day. They must have come from a genius's mind), gold debenture and corporate gold debenture. As you can see now, these things have no fixed meanings. You need to go to the individual schools' websites to find out the details. Make sure you understand whether they are (a) refundable, and (b) transferable.

 

[Eupheme]

OK!

Tank you soooooooooooo much! yes, I see that I need to go to the schools!!!!!!!!

 

[Sleuth]

It is easier to apply to college/university/grad school than to a kindergarten in HK.
Something is wrong here.