SCOLAR calls for proposals for English Festival 2005
The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) today (17 February) invited proposals of activities/programmes to be organised for the school sector and/or the general public as part of English Festival 2005.
The Chairman of SCOLAR, Mr Michael Tien, said, "SCOLAR has always seen it as its mission to promote biliteracy and trilingualism in Hong Kong. Enabling the public to master the English language and encouraging a wider use of the language in the local community is of utmost importance to the future development of Hong Kong as Asia's world city."
He added, "We received very encouraging feedback, particularly from the school sector, on Putonghua Month/Festival in the past two years. Inspired by the experience, we decided to organise an English Festival, through which to raise public interest in the learning and use of English. We hope the festival activities/programmes would encourage Hong Kong people to strive for improvement in their English proficiency through both informal exposure and increased use of the language in their daily lives."
The Language Fund has set aside $5 million to support English Festival 2005. Organisations are encouraged to seek funding from other sources, such as personal/commercial donations, to co-sponsor their proposed activities/programmes.
Following are some general conditions that parties interested in submitting proposals should note –
| 1. | Organiser: The organiser must be a local organisation. It should have the experience, capability and capacity to organise territory-wide English activities/programmes. |
| 2. | Activities/programmes: Tentatively, the festival will go from 1 March to 30 April 2005. Activities/programmes proposed may be conducted throughout the 2004/05 school year, with major events to be held within the festival period. The activities/programmes must be non-profit-making in nature. |
| 3. | Vetting Criteria: Proposals will be considered by a vetting panel composed of SCOLAR Members based on the criteria of cost-effectiveness, creativity, feasibility, number of beneficiaries and the organiser's track records in organising similar events in the past. |
Parties interested in submitting proposals may visit the SCOLAR website at http://www.language-education.com for detailed guidelines. Proposals should be submitted by post or in person to the SCOLAR Support Unit (SSU), Room 934, 9/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen's Road East, Wanchai (Attn: Project Coordinator (English)) before 5:00 p.m. on 22 March 2004. Late, faxed or emailed submissions will NOT be accepted.
For enquiries, please contact Mr Raymond Lam or Miss Louisa Yam at 2892 6436 / 2892 6558, by fax at 2801 7732, or by email at eassu1@emb.gov.hk / pce@emb.gov.hk.
SCOLAR was established in 1996. It advises the Government on language education issues in general and the use of the Language Fund.