The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:

     The Chairman of the Quality Education Fund (QEF) Steering Committee, Dr Gordon Tsui, today (May 25) announced the direction of the QEF, including the setting up of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools with the QEF allocating $3 billion as proposed in the 2018-19 Budget, and the 11 priority themes for the 2018/19 QEF applications.

     Dr Tsui said that since its introduction in 1998, the QEF, in line with the education development and policies of Hong Kong, had been striving to enhance the quality of school education and promote quality education. The QEF organises professional development activities, establishes quality school networks, and shares fruitful results with the education sector, with a view to facilitating professional exchanges and promoting a culture of quality education.

     He added that the QEF Steering Committee had made a proactive response to the Government's suggestion in the Budget earlier and decided to allocate $3 billion for the setting up of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools for schools to launch school-based curriculum development and support measures for students, as well as relevant school campus improvement works and procurement of supplies. This measure will be applicable to all publicly funded primary and secondary schools, including schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS), special schools, and the kindergartens under the New Kindergarten Education Scheme. It is a four-year programme starting from the 2018/19 school year. The first call for application will be made from July this year. To simplify the application procedures, the QEF has designed a designated application form and will upload examples to the QEF website for schools' reference.

     "The QEF hopes that the programme would better assist schools to launch school-based pilot or improvement projects to enhance learning and teaching as well as student support measures. The QEF Steering Committee agreed to set a total indicative value for each school from the primary and secondary schools sector and the kindergarten sector for reference purposes only. The indicative value of projects from the kindergarten sector is $500,000 and that of projects from the primary and secondary schools sectors (including special and DSS schools) is $2 million. By making reference to the total indicative values, each school may apply for one or more projects in the four school years. The total indicative values are intended to enable schools to plan ahead in preparing their budgets, and should not be taken as absolute ceiling amounts or a grant of a fixed value provided to schools. Simplified procedures have been designed for this dedicated funding programme to reduce the workload of schools in the application process," Dr Tsui said.

     In addition, the QEF will continue to provide 11 priority themes, covering the areas of "Learning and Teaching", "Support for Students and School Ethos" and "Management and Organisations". Elaboration on the respective priority themes is given to facilitate the preparation of proposals.

     The 11 priority themes for 2018/19 are:

Areas                        Priority Themes
——                        —————–
Learning                   * Catering for Learners' Diversity
and Teaching            * Effective Learning and Teaching of Languages
                               * Enhancing Learning and Teaching, and
                                  Assessment Literacy with a view to
                                  Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes in 
                                  Primary General Studies, Key Learning
                                  Areas/Subject Curricula and Liberal Studies
                               * Using e-Learning (IT) for Effective Learning
                               * Values Education
                               * Creative Arts and Culture Education

Support for               * Healthy Lifestyle and Positive Students   
Students and               and Development of Students
School Ethos             * Support for Students with Diverse Needs
                               * Promoting Whole-person Development
                                  among Kindergarten Children

Management and       * Supporting Effective School Organisations
Organisation                Management and Leadership
                               * Teacher Development and Wellness for
                                  Promoting Schools as Learning Organisations

     The QEF will continue to enhance communication and partnership with various stakeholders to create and share successful QEF project experiences. In addition to implementing the QEF Thematic Networks for knowledge transfer and sustainable professional development of teachers, the QEF has expanded the scope of the Thematic Networks to include initiatives which, not funded by the QEF, have been implemented in schools with good effect, in order to promote professional exchange and collaboration over quality education and benefit more schools.

     To familiarise potential applicants with the application procedures of the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools and the priority themes, the QEF Secretariat will hold briefing sessions for the applicants of the following groups:

* kindergartens (June 1, am)
* primary schools, special schools and school sponsoring bodies (June 4, am)
* secondary schools, special schools and school sponsoring bodies (June 4, pm)
* tertiary education institutions (June 8, am)
* non-government organisations (June 13, am)

     Details of the application procedures will be uploaded to the QEF website (qef.org.hk) on May 29. Apart from briefing sessions, the QEF Secretariat will organise regular proposal-writing workshops and individual consultation sessions for prospective applicants pertaining to the preparation of proposals. The public can make reference to proposals of funded projects via the QEF Cyber Resource Centre (qcrc.qef.org.hk).

     QEF deliverables, such as teaching and learning resources, can be purchased by mail or online at the QEF website and Hong Kong Education City (www.hkedcity.net). The QEF has also identified good projects for developing electronic deliverables with interactive functions to facilitate self-directed learning. So far, over 100 sets of electronic deliverables have been developed. The public can access these deliverables via the QEF Cyber Resource Centre and Hong Kong Education City.

     The Water Supplies Department (WSD) today (May 25) extended the voluntary Water Efficiency Labelling Scheme to cover water closets and invited applications for registration.
     
     The WSD launched the scheme in 2009 to further promote water conservation. Plumbing fixtures and water-consuming devices registered under the scheme are classified into four grades, with Grade 1 being the most water-efficient. Registered products bear a label that states their level of water consumption and water efficiency to help consumers choose water-efficient products to save water. Apart from covering water closets, the scheme has covered showers for bathing, water taps, washing machines, urinal equipment and flow controllers. As at May 15 this year, about 1 600 products were registered under the scheme.
 
     The WSD encourages manufacturers, importers and related parties in the water closet business to join the scheme. For registration, applicants just need to submit a test certificate issued by a recognised laboratory that proves the level of water consumption of their water closets together with relevant documents to the WSD.
 
     For details of the scheme, please visit the WSD's website (www.wsd.gov.hk/en/plumbing-engineering/water-efficiency-labelling-scheme/index.html) or call the WSD's hotline at 2824 5000.

     The Chinese Opera Festival presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will showcase the ancient Puxian opera genre in June.

     Initially known as Xinghua opera, Puxian opera originated from the region of Putian and Xianyou and became one of the five major opera genres of Fujian. Puxian opera has a long history and a traditional stock repertoire of more than 5 000 titles, with about 80 of the works retaining all of the elements of the original Southern opera as the cultural provenance. Therefore, the genre is known as the "living fossil" of Southern opera from the Song and Yuan dynasties. The genre was inscribed onto the first national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Puxian opera is influenced by puppetry, and much of the gesturing reminds the audience of the style of marionettes. In terms of music, the genre features a rich repertoire of set tunes and unique vocal styles. It is sung in the dialect of Puxian and has preserved much of the musical heritage of Southern opera from the Song and Yuan dynasties, full of local style and colour.

     Fujian Puxian Theatre will come to Hong Kong to perform traditional repertoire of Puxian opera. Winner of the Plum Blossom Award for Chinese Theatre and National Class One Performer Wang Shaoyuan will join Wu Qinghua and Huang Yanyan, the director and vice director respectively of Fujian Puxian Theatre, and lead a fine cast to perform "The Imperial Scholar and the Beggar", "Thrice Begging Fan Lihua" and an excerpt performance. In these performances, the unique nuance of Puxian opera will be demonstrated through the special body movements of the genre, such as "sedan chair carrying", the "chair routine", "floor-sweeping skirt", "the three-legged cane" and the "hoe routine".

     Details of the performances are as follows:

June 29 (Friday), 7.30pm
"The Imperial Scholar and the Beggar"
Main cast: Huang Yanyan, Wu Qinghua, Ma Yanyu, Yang Junsheng, Zheng Rensen

June 30 (Saturday), 7.30pm
"Thrice Begging Fan Lihua"
Main cast: Wang Shaoyuan, Wu Qinghua, Zheng Rensen, Yu Lixiang, Lin Chunhong, Zheng Chaofan

July 1 (Sunday), 2.30pm
Excerpts: "Gualao Grows Gourds", "'Mourning' from 'The Butterfly Lovers'", "'Bearing the Sedan Chair' from 'Chuncao Barging into the Court Room'", "'Cosmetics Shop' from 'Guo Hua'", "'Rescuing Brother-in-law' from 'Li Yangui'", "'Great News from the Capital City' from 'Lu Mengzheng'"
Main cast: Wang Shaoyuan, Wu Qinghua, Huang Yanyan, Zheng Rensen, Yu Zhi, Yu Lixiang

     All performances will be staged at the Theatre of Hong Kong City Hall. Tickets priced at $150, $250 and $320 are now available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk).

     For telephone credit card bookings, please call 2111 5999. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7325 or visit www.cof.gov.hk.

     Meet-the-Artists sessions (in Putonghua) entitled "'Living Fossil' of Song and Yuan Southern Opera – Artistic Charm and Heritage Development of Puxian Opera" and featuring Wu Qinghua, Huang Yanyan and Wang Shaoyuan will be held at 7.30pm on June 28 (Thursday) at AC2, Level 4, Administration Building, Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The moderator will be Chinese opera researcher Chan Chun-miu. Admission is free. Limited seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

     The Government announced today (May 25) the appointments to two industry advisory committees (IACs) to advise the Insurance Authority (IA) on industry-related issues. 
 
     The two IACs focus on long-term business and general business. The Financial Secretary has reappointed and appointed 12 non-official members to each IAC for a term of two years from June 1, 2018, to May 31, 2020.
 
      The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr James Lau, said, "Members of the two IACs have expertise in different lines of insurance business and some come from related fields such as consumer protection, accounting, insurance law and compliance, academia and banking. Their diverse backgrounds will provide the IA with valuable advice on various matters pertaining to the development of the insurance industry."
 
     The IACs are statutory committees established on June 1, 2016, under the Insurance Ordinance (Cap. 41), which stipulates that other than the chairperson, the chief executive officer and not more than two other executive directors of the IA, members of an IAC should include not less than eight but not more than 12 other persons with knowledge of or experience in the insurance industry, the conduct of regulated activities and consumer affairs. They are appointed by the Financial Secretary after consultation with the IA.
 
     The IA, a statutory body established by the Ordinance, is a new insurance regulator independent of the Government. On June 26, 2017, the IA took over the statutory functions of the former Office of the Commissioner of Insurance on the regulation of insurance companies. It plans to take over the regulation of insurance intermediaries from the three Self-Regulatory Organisations and administer a statutory licensing regime for insurance intermediaries by mid-2019.
 
      Following is the list of non-official members of the IACs with effect from June 1, 2018:
 
Non-official Members of the IAC on Long Term Business
———————————————————————– 
Mr David Alexander
Ms Charity Au Chi-san
Ms Jo Jo Chan Shuk-fong
Mr Chan Yim-kwong
Mrs Estella Chiu Sheun-fun
Mr Garth Brian Jones
Mr Mike Lee Siu-chuen
Professor Li Jingyuan
Mr Jeremy Robert Porter
Mr Martin Tam Chi-wai
Mr Harold Wong Tsu-hing
Mr Jonathan Zhao Xiaojing
 
Non-official Members of the IAC on General Business
——————————————————————
Mr Cheng Kwok-ping
Mr Michael Fung Lik-yeung
Ms Angela Leung Wai-tuen
Mr Liu Shihong
Mr Andrew Mak Kin-ting
Professor Angela Ng Lai-ping
Ms Rebecca Poon Chui-ngor
Mr Martin Stephan Rueegg
Dr Michael Tsui Fuk-sun
Mr Peter Anthony Whalley
Mr Harry Wong Kwok-tim
Professor Jason Yeh Jia-hsing
 

     The Government today (May 25) announced the re-appointment of the incumbent Chairman, Mr Jack So Chak-kwong, and three incumbent members, as well as the appointment of two new members, to the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) with effect from June 1, 2018.
 
     The Chairman of the AA, Mr So, has been re-appointed for a term of three years until May 31, 2021.
 
     The three incumbent members re-appointed are Ms Anita Fung Yuen-mei, Mr Billy Wong Wing-hoo and Dr Allan Zeman. Ms Fung has been re-appointed for a term of one year ending May 31, 2019 while Mr Wong and Dr Zeman have been re-appointed for a term of three years ending May 31, 2021.
 
     The two new members, Ms Linda Chan Ching-fan and Mr Adrian Wong Koon-man, have been appointed for a term of three years until May 31, 2021.
 
     Mr Andrew Fung Hau-chung will be leaving the AA on June 1, 2018. He has served as a member of the AA since June 2015. During his tenure, Mr Fung offered valuable advice to the AA on various issues concerning the services and expansion of Hong Kong International Airport. The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Mr Frank Chan Fan, expressed his heartfelt thanks to Mr Fung for his contributions to the work of the AA.   
 
     Under the Airport Authority Ordinance, the Chairman and members of the AA are appointed by the Chief Executive. The appointments are published in the Government Gazette today.
 
     The following is the full membership of the AA with effect from June 1, 2018:
 
Chairman:
———-
Mr Jack So Chak-kwong
 
Members:
———
Ms Linda Chan Ching-fan
Ms Anita Fung Yuen-mei
Mr Steven Ho Chun-yin
Mr Franklin Lam Fan-keung
Mr Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung
Mr Lee Shing-see
Mr Peter To
Mr Carlson Tong
Mr Adrian Wong Koon-man
Mr Billy Wong Wing-hoo
Mr Frankie Yick Chi-ming
Dr Allan Zeman
Secretary for Transport and Housing
Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury
Director-General of Civil Aviation
Chief Executive Officer, Airport Authority (ex officio)