ENB and waste paper exporters hold work exchange meeting with Ministry of Ecology and Environment

     â€‹A Government spokesman said today (May 16) that the Under Secretary for the Environment, Mr Tse Chin-wan, led a team of Environmental Protection Department (EPD) officers, together with the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Recycling Fund, Mr Jimmy Kwok, and the Chairman of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, Mr Willy Lin, as well as representatives of the China Inspection Company Limited and waste paper exporters, to join a work exchange meeting with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in Beijing yesterday (May 15) to exchange views on imports of recyclables to the Mainland. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and the General Administration of Customs.
      
     During the meeting, the Ministry gave an introduction on relevant policies and implementation of solid waste imports' management in the Mainland. The EPD briefed the attendees on the tendering progress of recycled paper products or related production lines of the EcoPark. Participants also exchanged views on the recent trends of the recyclables trade in Hong Kong; the support of the Recycling Fund to the industry; the work done by waste paper exporters to fulfil the tightened requirements on importing recyclables to the Mainland, including waste paper; and the industry's long-term development and value-added needs.
      
     The Under Secretary for the Environment, EPD officers and waste paper exporters visited the customs district at Huangpu in Guangzhou today to observe the inspection work carried out by the General Administration of Customs on importing recyclables from Hong Kong, including waste paper, in order to have a thorough understanding on the testing procedures and purity requirements for recyclables, including waste paper, by the Mainland. The delegation returned to Hong Kong after the visit.




CHP investigates outbreak of acute gastroenteritis at kindergarten in Tsuen Wan

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is today (May 16) investigating an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) at a kindergarten in Tsuen Wan, and hence reminded the public and management of institutions to maintain personal and environmental hygiene against AGE.

     The outbreak involves 22 boys and 11 girls aged 3 to 6, who developed vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and fever since May 12. Among them, 28 patients sought medical attention and none required hospitalisation. All patients have been in a stable condition.
 
     Officers of the CHP conducted a site visit and provided health advice to the staff of the school concerning proper and thorough disinfection, proper disposal of vomitus, and personal and environmental hygiene. The school has been put under medical surveillance.
 
     The CHP's investigations are ongoing.
 
     A spokesman for the CHP advised members of the public to take heed of the following preventive measures against gastroenteritis:
 

  • Ensure proper personal hygiene;
  • Wash hands thoroughly before handling food and eating, after using the toilet or after changing diapers;
  • Wear gloves when disposing of vomitus or faecal matter, and wash hands afterwards;
  • Clean and disinfect contaminated areas or items promptly and thoroughly with diluted household bleach (by adding one part of bleach containing 5.25 per cent sodium hypochlorite to 49 parts of water). Wash hands thoroughly afterwards;
  • Maintain good indoor ventilation;
  • Pay attention to food hygiene;
  • Use separate utensils to handle raw and cooked food;
  • Avoid food that is not thoroughly cooked;
  • Drink boiled water; and
  • Do not patronise unlicensed food premises or food stalls.

     The public may visit the CHP's website (www.chp.gov.hk) or call the Health Education Hotline (2833 0111) for more information.




Hong Kong Customs seizes suspected smuggled bird nest (with photo)

     Hong Kong Customs yesterday (May 15) seized about 12 kilograms of suspected smuggled bird nest with an estimated market value of about $640,000 at Lok Ma Chau Control Point.

     Customs officers intercepted an outgoing private car at Lok Ma Chau Control Point yesterday afternoon and seized the batch of suspected smuggled bird nest underneath the passenger seats and in the boot of the private car.

     The 45-year-old male driver was arrested. Investigation is ongoing and the arrested man has been released on bail pending further investigation.

     Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

     Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to the Customs 24-hour hotline 2545 6182, or dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

Photo  



LCQ15: Measures to improve special education services

     Following is a question by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, in the Legislative Council today (May 16):
 
Question:
 
     Since the 2009/10 school year, special schools have offered 12-year education for students with intellectual disability. As individual students may need to have their years of study extended due to various reasons, the Education Bureau (EDB) has, from the 2010/11 school year onwards, progressively implemented improvement measures to cater for the extension of students' years of study. As additional classrooms and facilities are involved, EDB has stated that it will implement the improvement measures progressively and will examine the carrying out of conversion works in some schools. In addition, starting from the 2017/18 school year, the EDB has provided additional allied health and nursing manpower in special schools to improve special education services. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) in respect of each type of special schools in each of the past three years, of (i) the number of students waiting for enrolment (including those who changed schools) and the average waiting time, and (ii) the number of students waiting for boarding places and the average waiting time;

(2) in respect of each type of special schools, of a list of the schools and the costs of the conversion works involved, broken down by the progress of the works needed to be carried out (including (i) the authorities' discussion with the schools on the works projects yet to commence, (ii) funding approval for the works being awaited, (iii) works in progress, and (iv) works completed);

(3) given that starting from this school year, the Government has provided an occupational therapist and an occupational therapist assistant for each special school for children with mild intellectual disability, moderate intellectual disability and visual impairment, of the conditions of service of such posts, and the average post-to-student ratio;

(4) among each type of special schools, of the number of schools that have recruited sufficient manpower to fill the posts mentioned in (3) at present, the total number of in-service allied health staff members, and the total number of vacancies of allied health posts;

(5) as quite a number of schools have relayed that they have experienced difficulties in recruiting occupational therapists, whether the authorities have approached those schools to find out the reasons for that, and whether they will review the salaries and conditions of service of the relevant posts in order to attract such type of professionals to take up the posts; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(6) apart from providing additional allied health manpower in special schools, whether the EDB has provided such schools with related facilities and equipment (e.g. dedicated special rooms or treatment rooms, occupational therapy equipment), so that such staff members may arrange on-campus treatment and movement training for students; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:
 
President,
 
     To enhance the quality of education, the EDB has all along been reviewing the development and resource of special education and introducing viable improvement measures as necessary in accordance with education professionalism and the learning needs of students. The Government has been increasing resource input for special education. Over the five financial years from 2013-14 to 2018-19, the funding allocation increased by 50 per cent from over $1.8 billion to over $2.7 billion.
 
     Since assuming office, the current-term Government has provided additional teaching and allied health manpower and resources, such as occupational therapists (OT) and speech therapists (ST), to improve the special education services. It has been announced in the 2018-19 Budget that the Government will improve the provision of school nurses and social workers of special schools from the 2018/19 school year. Moreover, the EDB has been actively improving the premises and facilities of special schools through various viable means, including conversion/addition, reprovisioning or in-situ redevelopment, to provide a better learning environment to students of special schools.
 
     Our reply to the questions raised by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen is as follows:

(1) Overall speaking, there are sufficient special school places presently. The EDB will, subject to the assessment and recommendation of specialists and the consent of parents, refer students with more severe or multiple disabilities to special schools. Basically, if parents follow the placement arrangement to special schools made by the EDB for their children, waiting for school places is not required.
 
     As regards boarding places of special schools, the number of students waiting for boarding places in the past three school years from 2014/15 to 2016/17, as at September 15 of each school year, is set out at Table 1. The figures include cases with boarding places allocated who are going through the procedure for admission, cases deferring admission on the request of parents and cases waiting for alternative boarding placement after parents' refusal of the initial offer made by the EDB.
 
Table 1: Number of students waiting for boarding places of special schools
 

Type of school 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17
School for children with visual impairment (VI) 4 0 0
School for children with physical disability (PD) 34 27 26
School for children with moderate intellectual disability (MoID) 117 101 113
School for children with severe intellectual disability (SID) 13 16 14

 
     The average waiting time for boarding places of special schools from the 2014/15 to 2016/17 school years is set out at Table 2.
 
Table 2: Average waiting time for boarding places of special schools
 

Type of school Average waiting time (Year)
School for children with VI 0.1
School for children with PD 0.5
School for children with MoID 1.4
School for children with SID 0.2

 
     In the calculation of the average waiting time, we have taken into account the cases of students who had been allocated a boarding place towards the end of a school term/year but their parents had requested to postpone admission for better adaptation and integration of the students. The time spent under such circumstances had also been counted.
 
     The EDB has been closely monitoring the supply and demand of boarding places in special schools and exploring feasible ways to increase the supply with reference to the actual demand. Currently, the overall supply of boarding places for different types of special schools is sufficient to meet the demand, except for schools for children with MoID. In this connection, the EDB has made optimal use of the space available in the boarding sections of schools for children with MoID, where relevant ordinances and regulations permit, for provision of additional boarding places in recent years. In addition, we have explored new measures with a view to increasing the provision. For instance, in the 2017/18 school year, we have piloted the operation of two MoID classes with 20 boarding places in a school for children with SID. Also, some new school projects are in the pipeline. Subject to the funding approval and the timely completion of the construction works, the number of boarding places for students with MoID will be increased to around 400 in the 2020/21 school year.
 
(2) The EDB has carried out 43 improvement works to address the circumstances and needs of individual special schools. To ensure that school needs are catered for properly, the EDB has all along maintained close liaison and communication with the schools concerned to gauge their views on the design, details and arrangements of the works. During the implementation of the projects, consultants are required to submit layout plans and design proposals to relevant government departments for vetting and approval with a view to complying with relevant statutory requirements. For those projects involving more complicated issues such as lease modification, it will take longer time to process. As at April 2018, 18 special school improvement projects have been completed, involving a total estimated expenditure of about $171.60 million, and another 25 projects are being implemented at different works stages. The actual amount of funding required for these projects will be determined after the project details are finalised.

(3) Starting from the 2017/18 school year, schools for children with mild intellectual disability (MiID), schools for children with MoID, the school for children with VI and the school for children with hearing impairment (HI) operating six or more approved classes are provided with one occupational therapist II (OT II) and one occupational therapist assistant (OTA). Regarding schools for children with MiID and MoID, each section operating six or more approved classes are provided with one OT II and one OTA respectively. As at September 2017, the salary scale for OT II and OTA is as follows:
 

Post Salary scale
Occupational therapist II $27,485 – $44,415
Occupational therapist assistant $18,205 – $28,865

 
(4) In the 2017/18 school year, there are 39 OT II/OTA posts in 34 schools for children with MiID, schools for children with MoID, the school for children with VI and the school for children with HI. We learnt that, as at April 2018, 29 out of these 34 schools employed an OT and/or frozen the post to obtain a cash grant for recruiting temporary staff and hiring the related service. The remaining five schools have six OT vacancies but they neither recruited any OT nor applied for the cash grant. One school froze only one out of two OT posts. In other words, there are seven OT vacancies. As for the manpower of OTA, 26 schools are at full or partial strength while eight schools have yet to recruit such staff, involving a total of 11.2 posts.
 
(5) OT of special schools are remunerated by the Salaries Grant on a pay scale linked to that of the civil service. Their pay and conditions of service are set according to the established mechanism of the Government. The EDB maintains communication with individual special schools and the Hong Kong Special Schools Council through various channels to learn about their difficulties in recruiting OT. In view of the keen demand for OT, the fundamental solution lies in increasing the overall supply of manpower through training. In this connection, the EDB has requested universities to increase their training capacity and encouraged self-financing post-secondary education sector to offer designated programmes, including nursing programmes through the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors to nurture talent in support of specific industries with keen demand for human resources. For the meantime, to alleviate the difficulties in recruiting OT, special schools may choose to freeze some of the OT vacancies in exchange for cash grant to recruit temporary staff or hire related services.
 
(6) Students of schools for children with MiID, schools for children with MoID, the school for children with VI and the school for children with HI often display weaknesses in their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination which require the support of OT. Generally speaking, schools can make available OT to support students through direct (such as individual/group OT sessions) and indirect (such as in-class teaching and learning activities) intervention. The said intervention services will enable needy students to develop and improve their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination through individualised daily learning activities in the school environment. Schools can make flexible use of the existing hardware to offer OT service to their students. If necessary, schools can also make use of the Expanded Operating Expenses Block Grant as well as the Composite Furniture and Equipment Grant to procure the equipment needed for the therapy.




UGC welcomes Central Government’s new policy to allow cross-border remittance of research funding

The following is issued on behalf of the University Grants Committee:
 
     The Chairman of the University Grants Committee (UGC), Mr Carlson Tong, today (May 16) welcomed the new policy of the Central Government to open up science and technology funding by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the Ministry of Finance for application by the higher education institutions and research institutions in Hong Kong.
 
     Mr Tong said, "I am very pleased and appreciate very much the support given by the Central Government in allowing the UGC-funded universities to bid for state funding to undertake science and technology projects in the Mainland. This new initiative is an important milestone in supporting research in the higher education sector of Hong Kong. It will certainly give our universities great impetus for further development. The UGC calls upon the universities to capture this valuable opportunity and continue to foster collaboration between Hong Kong and the Mainland on the research front.

     I believe this new policy would attract young people to join academia and retain talents in Hong Kong. This will surely enhance the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong in the long run."
 
     The Chairman of the Research Grants Council (RGC), Professor Benjamin Wah, welcomed the policy, which he said will allow the RGC to work more closely with the MOST and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.