The Education Bureau announced today it will provide a subsidy to all kindergartens, kindergarten & child care centres and schools with kindergarten classes joining the kindergarten education scheme to support students’ home learning.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung said as it is not desirable for young children to use an electronic screen for a long period of time, e-learning is not suitable for kindergarten students.

The bureau has decided to provide a one-off subsidy to support kindergartens to implement two home learning schemes: the Gift Book Scheme and Do It Yourself (DIY) Handicraft & Home Learning Package Scheme.

The two schemes aim to cultivate children's reading interest and promote a reading culture, as well as encourage the kindergartens' creativity in designing interesting home learning activities that meet children's interests, abilities and learning needs.

The estimated total funding will be about $86 million.

The bureau will provide a grant through the Gift Book Scheme for kindergartens to purchase a printed book for each student in the 2020-21 and the 2021-22 school year to cultivate their reading interest.

The Gift Book Scheme grant will be calculated in accordance with the number of eligible students in a school, and the amount allocated will be $100 per student per school year. No application is required. The grant will be disbursed next month at the earliest.

Kindergartens should use the grant to purchase books for each student and implement different measures to encourage children to read at home, read with their parents or share books with their peers. 

The Learning Package Scheme grant, which will be disbursed in March at the earliest, is capped at $50,000 or $80,000, depending on the size of the kindergarten.

They are encouraged to design simple, relaxing and interesting learning tasks or parent-child activities and use the grant to prepare materials and guidelines for facilitating students to make DIY handicrafts or produce home-learning packages for students. 

School sponsoring bodies or operators can also play a co-ordinating role to assist their kindergartens to design activities and develop materials collaboratively to leverage the synergy.

Mr Yeung hoped that kindergartens would make good use of the two additional grants to enhance kindergarten education services by strengthening support for students’ learning at home and promoting home-school co-operation as well as the parent-child relationship.