The Education Bureau (EDB) issued a circular memorandum today (February 20) to all public sector schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools to announce the implementation details of the "one executive officer for each school" policy.
An EDB spokesman said, "Starting from the 2019/20 school year, the EDB will provide all public sector schools and DSS schools with resources for hiring additional administrative manpower, enabling schools to review administrative arrangements and requirements, streamline procedures, strengthen administrative support and at the same time reduce the administrative work of teachers and principals, thereby creating room for them to focus more on core education tasks and to take care of student development. The new measure will incur an annual additional expenditure of around $500 million."
Starting from September 1, 2019, each aided school (including special schools) will be provided with a school executive officer. Schools may, in accordance with their school-based circumstances and needs, opt to create a regular School Executive Officer post in the approved non-teaching staff establishment of aided schools, or to receive the School Executive Officer Grant (SEOG) for the appointment of a full-time school executive officer with a local bachelor's degree (or equivalent). Schools receiving the SEOG may hire from service providers' school administrative support service, which should include the provision of at least one full-time school executive officer with a local bachelor's degree (or equivalent) stationed at school. Government schools, caput schools and DSS schools will also be provided with resources for appointment of additional administrative staff to suitably strengthen their administrative effectiveness.
The main duty of the school executive officer is to supervise and co-ordinate the administrative affairs of the school. The EDB will organise an induction programme for the newly appointed school executive officers of public sector schools. The programme will cover various aspects of school administration, such as school finances, procurement, appointment of staff, assessment of staff salary, handling school complaints, crisis management, and maintenance and safety of school premises. Briefing sessions will also be held to introduce the implementation details of the "one executive officer for each school" policy to schools.
The Education Commission set up the Task Force on School-based Management Policy (Task Force) in November 2017 to study the implementation of the school-based management (SBM) policy in aided schools and, based on the results of the study, recommend support measures for the optimisation of SBM. Among the recommendations, the proposed provision of additional resources for schools to handle administrative work received widespread support from the stakeholders. In view of this, the Government took the Task Force's advice that this proposal be implemented as soon as possible. The Chief Executive announced the initiative of "one executive officer for each school" in her Policy Address last year.
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