Ordinary Gweilo

The negotiations over the future of the ESF continue, but there seems to be some progress: 

Deadlock over future ESF subsidies

Rather than losing government funds, foundation wants amounts matching Direct Subsidy Scheme

Dennis Chong
Nov 23, 2011

Negotiations between the English Schools Foundation and the government over whether ESF schools should continue to receive government funding are deadlocked, with the clock ticking on an earlier goal of finalising reform details by the end of this year.

The government is considering whether funding should cease in the long term, while the ESF wants an increase to a level equal to the subsidies received by Direct Subsidy Scheme schools in the government system. The government has yet to set out conditions for the funding to stay and the two sides have yet to reach agreement on how schools should be better regulated if it does remain, ESF officials say. The uncertainty may hamper drafting of a plan for development of the foundation's schools for the next three years.

"We will continue our discussions with [the Education Bureau] and negotiate for a sustainable and recurrent subvention," ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay, who has strongly objected to removal of the subsidies, said yesterday.  Du Quesnay said that instead of accepting the loss of the government money, the school operator was demanding an increase to a level on a par with schools under the Direct Subsidy Scheme – now about double the amount received by the ESF.

She said the foundation was willing to accept more monitoring and supervision if its own control over curriculum and the pay, recruitment and professional development of staff could be maintained. In this academic year, DSS schools receive HK$35,200 for each primary pupil and HK$43,890 for each secondary pupil. The ESF got HK$17,757 and HK$23,659 respectively, an ESF spokeswoman said.

In a letter received by parents this week, Du Quesnay wrote that the board had been at pains to put forward its case to retain and increase the subsidy.

Earlier this year, the government proposed reviewing the future of ESF schools, raising the possibility that the foundation should ultimately become self-financing. This poses questions on how the city will be able to maintain adequate opportunities for non-Chinese-speaking pupils, who now go to ESF schools, to receive a quality education.

The authorities also proposed in July that under planned reform, ESF schools would have to sign time-definite service agreements with the government in order to improve accountability. The government said this should take place in the next academic year.

Du Quesnay said yesterday that the ESF was willing to sign service agreements setting out programmes of activities and financial monitoring arrangements. The Education Bureau declined to comment.

I have never fully understood why the ESF couldn’t be part of the DSS scheme.  It seems like the obvious answer to the problem, but it would require some changes to the DSS scheme given that the ESF gives priority to students who are not Cantonese speakers.  Given that the whole point of the ESF is to fill that gap in the local school system, you’d think that the government would be able to do that.