Professional Development Incentive Grant Scheme for Language Teachers launched
The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) announced today (12 March) the launch of the Professional Development Incentive Grant Scheme for Language Teachers.
The scheme aims at encouraging serving teachers of the Chinese and English Language subjects to upgrade their qualifications by offering financial incentives.
The Chairman of SCOLAR Mr Michael Tien said, "It is SCOLAR's long-term goal to build a professional language teaching force in Hong Kong. This scheme is an important step towards this goal. Through providing financial incentives, we hope to encourage more serving teachers to enhance their knowledge and skills and improve their professional capability in language teaching."
In the final report of its language education review published in June 2003, SCOLAR recommended that an incentive grant scheme be set up to encourage more serving teachers of the Chinese and English Language subjects to upgrade their qualifications. The scheme, now titled the Professional Development Incentive Grant Scheme for Language Teachers, will provide eligible serving teachers with grants to meet 50% of the tuition fee of relevant programmes of study, subject to a maximum of $30,000 per teacher.
Priority will be given to teachers who have neither a degree nor any teacher training in the language subject(s) they teach.
A total of $225 million has been allocated from the Language Fund to support the Professional Development Incentive Grant Scheme. The scheme will accept applications starting from 1 April 2004.
For details about eligibility criteria and application procedures, please refer to the Notes to Applicants and the Application Form posted on the SCOLAR website (http://www.language-education.com).
For enquiries, please contact the SCOLAR Support Unit at 3527 0180.
SCOLAR was established in 1996. It advises the Government on language education issues in general and the use of the Language Fund.