ESF to seek government help for plan to replace school buildings

Leaders of the English Schools Foundation will tomorrow launch their first bid for extra government funding since a damning 2004 audit report by asking legislators to back plans for a new school building.

ESF chief executive Heather Du Quesnay will explain to the Legislative Council's education panel why the foundation needs HK$169.3 million of government capital funding to put into the rebuilding of Kowloon Junior School - its oldest campus.

The ESF plans to put in HK$220.5 million of its own money - including the proceeds of a HK$25,000 capital levy that is coming in next year - to provide enhancements to the standard government style of campus that is the norm in ESF schools.

The bid is the first step in an ambitious plan that aims to replace all the ESF's 15 publicly funded schools within 50 years at an estimated cost of around HK$5 billion. Many of the schools are crumbling or outdated.

Following six tumultuous years that saw stinging criticism of the ESF from the Audit Commission and the Public Affairs Committee, reform of its oversized governing foundation, cuts in teachers' pay, funding cuts, and fee increases, ESF chiefs are seeking a new deal with the Education Bureau.

They want to secure government capital funds for the rebuilding plan on the grounds that parents will also pay via the levy and the ESF will contribute from its operating surplus, private donations and borrowings.

Du Quesnay said the ESF board had adopted the strategy of first wooing the government into discussions of capital works with a view to later moving on to the issue of the future of the government subvention.