The Direct Subsidy Scheme was born in 1991 to help schools breathe beyond bureaucracy: to free schools from government control, letting them decide everything from their fee levels and curriculum to admission rules and class sizes.
But they must take responsibility to use their funds wisely and to manage their affairs within the rules.
The extent to which that did not happen is seen in the recent, damning report from the Director of Audit - a catalogue of unsound financial practices, sloppy management and poor accountability at all but one of the 73 DSS schools. The possibility of such abuses was evident long ago. Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, the permanent secretary for education and manpower from 2002 to 2006, saw the need for a code for DSS schools after finding minor irregularities in internal audits.
'In one case, there was a principal who charged her monthly cross-harbour [tunnel] fees to the government account. That was clearly wrong so we required her to rectify it,' Law said yesterday. Finding one or two more such problems, 'we said there will have to be a much more comprehensive code of aid for DSS schools', she said.
As Law sees it, if schools are to manage themselves - without bureaucrats overseeing their every move - then parents must take a strong role in seeing where the money goes and what the priorities are.
'There was a very big row within the school sponsoring bodies because we want the authority but they don't want the responsibility,' Law said. 'There must come a point where there are checks and balances. The school management committee is the check and balance.
'It is up to the parents, the alumni and the government to ensure that these schools use funds as they should. The parents have to ensure that extra schools fees are properly used. The government has to ensure that its funds are used properly.'
