Activities celebrating 25th anniversary of Quality Education Fund held (with photos)
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The following is issued on behalf of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee:
In celebration of its establishment for 25 years, the Quality Education Fund (QEF) held the Opening cum Prize Presentation Ceremony of the QEF 25th Anniversary Exposition cum Teachers’ Professional Experience Sharing Month 2023 today (March 25), with the theme of “Leveraging Wisdom from Experience Inspiring Future with Innovation”.
Officiating at the opening cum prize presentation ceremony, the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said that the QEF has allocated about $6.4 billion to fund over 13 000 projects so far, providing more resources for schools to try out innovative teaching pedagogies, implementing all-rounded measures to support students’ learning and development for the benefit of students as well as to provide new impetus to the school sector. The QEF is an epochal investment in education, which fully demonstrates the determination of the Government to enhance the quality of education and the great importance it attaches to nurturing talents.
Dr Choi said that the QEF has launched designated funding schemes in recent years to support diverse development of the school sector, including the Dedicated Funding Programme for Publicly-funded Schools starting from the 2018/19 school year, which provides schools with additional resources to implement school-based curriculum design, student support measures, and develop new domains in learning. The QEF also launched the “My Pledge to Act” funding programme in the 2019/20 school year and the enhanced funding programme in 2021 to provide schools with additional resources to foster students’ positive values, implement national education and national security education, and media and information literacy education.
Dr Choi thanked the current and past members of various committees and task forces for their efforts and contributions in leading the QEF for continual development and also the school sector for their full support to the work of the QEF. She said, “With our joint efforts, the QEF will continue to strive for excellence and support more innovative projects to promote the development of quality education.”
The Chairman of the QEF Steering Committee, Dr Gordon Tsui, thanked the school sector for their continuous support to the QEF, and said that the QEF aims at promoting quality school education and facilitating learning and teaching. Over the past 25 years, the Education Bureau and the QEF Steering Committee have been working together to lead the development of the QEF, constantly seeking changes to keep pace with the trend of education development. To facilitate the submission of applications, the QEF has continued to enhance the application procedures and put forward measures to help schools apply for funding, including the streamlining of application forms, providing reference information and arranging regular consultation sessions.
This morning, thematic seminars were held on-site and online simultaneously with a view to discussing with the school sector new trends in education development. The seminars were presented by the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, Dr Jimmy Wong, Associate Vice President (Academic Affairs and External Relations) and Professor of Department of History of Lingnan University Professor Lau Chi-pang, and Associate Head of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of City University of Hong Kong Professor Sylvia Kwok Lai. The topics of the seminars covered technology education, national education and positive education. Moreover, there were also student performances, a QEF project exhibition, QEF Thematic Networks showcases with game booths and a QEF products sales booth to disseminate the fruitful achievements of QEF projects and promote professional exchanges in the education sector. In the afternoon, the activities included 15 sharing sessions conducted via live streaming, covering topics such as “Values Education”, “STEAM Education”, “Early Childhood Education”, “Creative Education” and “National Identity” and so on.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the QEF, a folder design competition and a pin design competition were held at the end of 2022. The winning works will be printed on 25th anniversary souvenirs. The list of winners has been uploaded to the QEF 25th anniversary activity page at qcrc.qef.org.hk/en/25th/index.html.