Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ12: Harmonisation of pre-primary services

Following is a question by the Hon Wong Sing-chi and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (October 29):

Question:

Regarding the implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services from the 2004/05 school year, will the Government inform this Council -

(a) of the assistance to be rendered to child care bodies ("CCBs") which need to undergo restructuring as a result of the implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services, so as to ensure a smooth transition of such bodies;

(b) as the authorities have indicated that the qualifications of serving and trained child care workers ("CCWs") and kindergarten ("KG") teachers would be recognised by the authorities upon the implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services, without the requirement for further qualification assessment or attendance of conversion courses, of the respective numbers of CCWs and KG teachers whose qualifications will and will not be recognised by the authorities; and how the authorities will assist those CCWs and KG teachers whose qualifications are not recognised;

(c) since the teacher to children ratio for CCBs serving children aged two to three will be changed from 1:14 to 1:15 to bring it in line with that for CCBs serving children aged three to six, of the estimated number of child care service workers who will consequently lose their jobs, and how the authorities will assist them; and

(d) whether any operators of CCBs have indicated their decision to cease operating child care services in the light of the implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services; if so, of the number of CCBs concerned, whether the overall demand for child care services will be affected, and how the authorities plan to tackle the problems concerned?

Reply:

(a) The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) and Social Welfare Department (SWD) have jointly set up a special team to work out the details on the implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services, such as legislation amendment, provision of subsidies to parents and operators, as well as mutual recognition arrangements with regard to the registration of serving kindergarten teachers and child care workers etc., with a view to ensuring a smooth transition of the child care bodies. Upon completion of its tasks, the special team will hold sessions to brief the sector on the specific arrangements as soon as practicable.

In the meantime, the special team has also held focus group discussion with representatives of the sector, to keep them informed of the progress of the harmonisation exercise and gauge their views. In the days to come, the team will continue to hold focus group meetings to collect more views to ensure a smooth implementation of the harmonisation of pre-primary services. In addition, the special team has also set up a "one-stop" point for answering enquires and rendering support for the child care bodies in need.

(b) In the 2002/03 academic year, the numbers of serving and trained kindergarten (KG) teachers and child care workers (CCW) were 6,524 and 3,890 respectively. The authorities had undertaken that serving and trained KG teachers and CCWs would be mutually recognised by SWD and EMB as Registered Teachers/Qualified KG Teachers and CCWs respectively upon harmonisation, without further qualification assessment or requirement of attending conversion courses. Under such arrangements, the harmonisation exercise will not render the qualifications of serving and trained CCWs/KG teachers unrecognised.

(c) With regard to kindergartens, the teacher to children ratio has already been improved steadily from 1:30 since the 2001/02 academic year. The 1:15 ratio as proposed in the harmonisation of pre-primary services will create a greater demand for the overall number of teachers of pre-primary services. As far as child care centres are concerned, the existing teacher to children ratio of 1:14 will be changed to 1:15 following the harmonisation of pre-primary services. This ratio represents the minimum requirement. Operators are at liberty to adopt a more favourable ratio.

For child care centres with 100 and 112 children on average, even though the teacher to children ratio will be changed from 1:14 to 1:15, the demand for the number of CCWs will remain to be seven and eight respectively, which is comparable with the existing manpower requirement. Therefore, there would not be any significant impact.

(d) As far as we are aware, no child care body has indicated its decision to cease operation in the light of the implementation of the harmonisation exercise, given that this is actually in line with the sector's aspirations for years. With a steady decline in our children population, there has been closure of some kindergartens/child care centres or reduction in their intakes over the past few years. These phenomena has no direct relationship with the harmonisation exercise.

End/sWednesday, October 29, 2003
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