The Task Force on School-based Management (SBM) Policy today (July 8) submitted its review report to the Education Bureau (EDB).
The Chairman of the Task Force, Mr Tim Lui, said, "Since its establishment in November 2017, the Task Force has looked into the current implementation of the SBM policy in aided schools and related issues carefully. During the review process, the Task Force had launched an extensive consultation to collect views from the education sector and stakeholders for formulating the final recommendations."
He added that the Task Force had considered all the views collected and hoped that with the joint efforts of the Government and the education sector, the recommendations of the Task Force will be fully carried out to achieve greater effectiveness in implementing the SBM policy, thereby fostering the provision of quality education that prepares students for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
The Task Force set up under the Education Commission (EC) has put forward a total of 27 recommendations with a view to improving the quality of governance, strengthening the administration capabilities of schools and unleashing capacity for teachers and principals, and enhancing the participation of major stakeholders in school governance. These include, among others, the provision of additional resources to strengthen administrative support of schools and management committees, streamlining of school administration, enhancement of training and support for school managers, proposal of soft training indicators for school supervisors and managers, and strengthening of communication between the EDB/Incorporated Management Committees and stakeholders. Despite the fact that complaint handling lies beyond the scope of the SBM policy, the Task Force, in view of the extensive discussion and concerns of the sector about handling of teachers' complaints in early 2019, deemed it necessary to deliberate on this issue and make recommendations for improvement in a bid to further enhance the fairness, impartiality and acceptance of the complaint handling mechanism. The recommendations are set out in the Annex.
Having received the review report, the Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung said, "I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to the Chairman and members of the Task Force for their hard work and contributions to the review. The Task Force has been dedicated to conducting a thorough and in-depth review on SBM and various key issues with professional insight and wide engagement of stakeholders, before making the pragmatic and constructive recommendations.
"The EDB attaches great importance to the effective implementation of SBM. We have earlier adopted the Task Force's preliminary views and announced that as from the 2019/20 school year, all public sector schools (including special schools) and schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme would be provided with additional resources of $570 million each year to strengthen the administrative support for schools and their management committees, including the implementation of the 'One Executive Officer for Each School' policy. The EDB will further study the review report and consider the recommendations in detail for mapping out the way forward."
The full review report can be viewed on the EC website at www.e-c.edu.hk/en/publications_and_related_documents/education_reports.html.
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