EDB announces implementation details of Life-wide Learning Grant

     The Education Bureau (EDB) issued a circular today (May 31) to all public sector schools (including special schools) and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) to announce the implementation details of the Life-wide Learning Grant (LWL Grant), which will be disbursed starting from the 2019/20 school year with an annual provision of about $900 million.

     The Chief Executive announced in her 2018 Policy Address that public sector schools and DSS schools will be provided with the LWL Grant to support schools in taking forward, based on the present foundation, life-wide learning with enhanced efforts to broaden students' horizons and foster their whole-person development.

     The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, said, "Life-wide learning attaches great importance to learning in authentic contexts as it enables students to achieve learning objectives which are difficult to achieve through classroom learning alone. The knowledge, skills, positive values and attitudes that students acquire in experiential learning is important in developing their lifelong learning capabilities and fostering their whole-person development.

     "We hope that schools will make good use of the LWL Grant to organise more out-of-classroom experiential learning activities which are related to daily life and closely linked to the school curriculum, with a view to enhancing the learning interest of students and improving their learning."

     Mr Yeung added, "The scope of the Life-wide Learning Grant is broad, so as to meet the operational needs of schools. We aim to encourage teachers to employ the strategy of life-wide learning to enhance learning and teaching effectiveness. We are hopeful that the learning experiences of our students will become more enriched starting from the coming school year."

     The LWL Grant will be disbursed to schools starting from the 2019/20 school year. Taking a school with 24 approved classes as an example, each primary and secondary school will receive $750,000 and $1.16 million respectively. The LWL Grant should be directly used to enrich students' learning experiences. It can also be used to procure equipment, consumables and learning resources required for taking forward life-wide learning, and defray the expenses incurred by teachers for leading student activities.

     The EDB will be organising relevant professional development programmes and exchange activities to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills in promoting life-wide learning. Schools should encourage their teachers to actively participate in these programmes.