MIL Asia Pacific Publishing Engine

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

     Following is a question by the Hon Vincent Cheng and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, in the Legislative Council today (April 30):

Question:
 
     It has been reported that the Schools Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China (HKSSF) has earlier on launched the inaugural HKSSF Finals, featuring a number of Jing Ying tournaments or inter-area competitions held at the Kai Tak Sports Park, which have brought heightened interest and attention to inter-school competitions. In addition, the Chief Executive has proposed in the 2024 Policy Address to include Physical Education (PE) in the primary school internal assessments starting from the 2026/27 school year, so as to encourage student participation in physical activities on a regular basis. Regarding the promotion of the sports atmosphere in schools, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) as it is learnt that about 30 000 inter-school competitions are currently held each year in Hong Kong, and quite a number of new sports or urban sports have emerged in recent years, whether the authorities have plans to allocate additional resources to the HKSSF to enhance the arrangements of inter-school competitions, thus enabling the school sector to organise more varieties of competitions of high quality;
 
(2) given that at present there are Jing Ying tournaments and all Hong Kong inter-school competitions in nine and eight sports events respectively for secondary schools, whether the authorities have plans to introduce more territory-wide inter-school competitions (especially elite sports that are popular among students, such as fencing and cycling), so as to enable student participation in more high-level competitions, thereby identifying more athletes with potential for training and better dovetailing with the development of elite sports; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(3) as it has been reported that there are four major assessment domains (i.e. physical fitness, attitudes, sports skills and knowledge) for the PE subject in the primary school internal assessments, of the criteria based on which schools are required to determine students’ scores in the subject; how the authorities will encourage schools to make use of this opportunity to further cultivate students’ interest in doing sports; and
 
(4) whether the authorities have plans to assist schools in organising more new or interesting sports events and allowing students to participate on their own terms, thereby promoting the sports atmosphere in schools; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     In consultation with the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and the Schools Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China (HKSSF), our consolidated reply to the question raised by the Hon Vincent Cheng is as follows:
 
 (1) and (2) The Government actively supports the development of sports and promotes sports in the community through subsidising various national sports associations (NSAs), including the HKSSF. With the completion of the Kai Tak Sports Park, the Government also provides quality competition venues to host different inter-school sports events, with a view to attracting the participation of more young people and students and enhancing the sports ambience in schools.
 
     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) has allocated around $620 million in 2025-26 as block grant under the Sports Subvention Scheme to various NSAs to promote sports in the community, youth training programmes, community participation, squad training at all levels and overseas exchange programmes and competitions. Over the past six years, the block grant provided by the LCSD to the NSAs has increased from around $300 million per year to over $600 million per year. In approving funding for each NSA (including the HKSSF) each year, the LCSD considers factors including the annual plans submitted by the NSAs, as well as their past performance, expenditure patterns, programme arrangements, and subvention management.
 
     The HKSSF, a recognised NSA of the Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China subsidised by government departments including the LCSD and the Education Bureau (EDB), organises and participates in various local and overseas inter-school sports competitions. To better dovetail with the development of elite sports, the HKSSF has established with other NSAs a system of training and selection for elite athletes to provide student athletes with specific sports training of a high standard, thereby feeding potential athletes to relevant NSAs and preparing them for higher-level competitions in future. In the past year, over 1 000 primary and secondary schools across the territory participated in activities organised by the HKSSF, accounting for about 97 per cent of the total number of schools in Hong Kong; around 130 000 students participated in inter-school competitions, covering about 37 sports, approximately 70 per cent of which were elite sports such as fencing, swimming, and athletics. These competitions also involved urban sports such as 3-on-3 basketball and futsal. With dedicated efforts of the Government, there are already a great variety of high quality sports competitions in the school sector, enabling students’ participation in more high-level competitions and facilitating the identification of more athletes with potential.
 
(3) In October 2024, the EDB announced the optimised arrangement of the weighting of subjects in the Internal Assessments (IA) for the Secondary School Places Allocation. Physical Education (PE) will be included in the IA in the second term of Primary five from the 2026/27 school year, so as to further help students develop a habit of joining sports activities from young age for strengthening their physique as well as provide them with the motivation to understand and improve their physical fitness, thereby achieving the learning goal of “Healthy Lifestyle”. The new measure has received general support from various stakeholders.
 
     Promoting the healthy growth of students is the first and foremost aim of the IA of PE, with an emphasis on foundation skills as well as objective and achievable health ratings. The IA of PE also builds on the domains and standards of PE assessment currently adopted by schools in general, including Physical Fitness, Attitudes, Sports Skills, and Knowledge (abbreviated as F.A.S.K.), and is a regular task of schools. Schools will refer to the relevant curriculum documents published by the EDB, including curriculum guides, the “Physical Education Learning Outcomes Framework”, and the assessment standards for physical fitness specified in the School Physical Fitness Award Scheme (Note 1) in adopting diversified modes of assessment, so as to enhance the effectiveness in learning and teaching through allowing students to demonstrate their learning outcomes in various ways and catering for their diverse potential, abilities and needs. Schools are required to set out clear learning objectives, scope of assessment, focus and format of assessment, and assessment criteria, etc, to enable students and parents to understand the relevant assessment criteria and arrangements. 
 
     The EDB will continue to update curriculum documents, develop learning and teaching resources, and organise professional development programmes for teachers. In addition, the EDB will provide a series of support measures to promote PE development in schools with a life-wide learning approach, including organising briefing sessions for schools and parents, and setting up a professional network of “Primary School PE Assessment Learning Circle”, so as to further assist students in developing an active and healthy lifestyle.
 
(4) The EDB has included the World Health Organisation’s recommendation that children and adolescents aged five to 17 should accumulate at least an average of 60 minutes daily of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activities (MVPA60) across the week as one of the directions of the PE curriculum. It has also introduced the “MVPA60 Award Scheme” with the slogan “Let’s exercise every day, exercise together and exercise with others” to encourage students to exercise regularly with their families, classmates or friends. More than 210 000 students have participated in the Scheme since its inception. In addition, the “Active Students, Active People” Campaign (Note 1) has also been launched since the 2021/22 school year to rally the efforts of schools and parents as well as other stakeholders to promote an optimised sports ambience in schools and in society. The Campaign offers a series of PE activities as well as learning and teaching resources to support schools in mobilising students’ participation in physical activities and further engaging them in developing an active and healthy lifestyle. Demonstrations of different sports and experiences of Olympic and emerging sports are featured in these activities to enhance students’ interest and provide them with opportunities in participating in physical activities, thus promoting the sports ambience in schools. The Campaign has recorded the participation of more than 60 000 students since its launch. The EDB will inject new elements into the Campaign in a timely manner so as to meet the needs of schools.
 
     In addition, the EDB disbursed a one-off grant of $150,000 to schools in March 2024 to support them in organising various activities, subsidising students’ participation in diversified sports activities (e.g. emerging or fun sports), purchasing or upgrading PE/sports equipment in schools, etc., with a view to increasing opportunities for students to participate in sports and promoting the sports ambience in schools on all fronts.
 
     Regarding teacher training, the EDB collaborates with local universities to organise the annual Hong Kong Physical Education Teachers Conference, which brings together various experts in PE to conduct thematic sharing. Teaching workshops on various sports, including urban sports such as 3-on-3 basketball and sport climbing, and such emerging sports as pickleball, tchoukball, floorball and Baseball5, are also held to enrich teachers’ professional knowledge and assist them in organising diversified activities for students within and outside the classroom, with a view to promoting students’ participation in different kinds of sports activities and enriching their sports learning experiences.
 
     Moreover, the EDB has been collaborating with government departments, relevant bodies and organisations to organise various physical activities and sports programmes, such as the School Sports Programme, as well as “Project MuSE” and “Jump Rope Together” Rope Skipping Scheme 2.0 funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, to provide students with more opportunities to participate in sports activities during leisure time, foster a sporting culture in schools and identify student athletes with potential for further training.
 
Note 1: The School Physical Fitness Award Scheme (spfas.hkuhealth.com), jointly developed by the EDB, the Hong Kong Childhealth Foundation and the Physical Fitness Association of Hong Kong, China, has been in place and developed in the school sector for over 35 years.
 
Note 2: www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/pe/asap/index.html

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

(7) of the three most common reasons given by ordinary families waiting for PRH for refusing the units allocated to them; whether the Government has reviewed the savings in administrative costs in processing PRH applications with successful allocations on the first offer as compared to those requiring several offers before an allocation is successful?

Reply:
 
President,
 
The objective of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) is to provide public rental housing (PRH) to those who cannot afford private rental accommodation. With regard to the question raised by the Hon Tang Ka-piu, my reply is as follows:
 
(1) Given the limited PRH resources, it is the prevailing policy of the HA to accord priority to general applicants (i.e. family applicants and elderly-one person applicants) over non-elderly one-person applicants in the allocation of PRH flats. The relative priority of flat allocation to general applicants is determined according to the principle of rational allocation of PRH resources and strictly in accordance with the order of registration date/G-number Equivalent Date (Note) (if any) of applications. Apart from the general applicants, we have set another queue for non-elderly one-person applicants and the priority of flat allocation is determined by the Quota and Points System (QPS). Unlike that of general applicants, the order of the applications is not in accordance with the sequence of the date of registration, but is determined by the total points accumulated by such applicants under QPS.
 
     To cater to the housing needs of the elderly, encourage younger families to take care of their elderly parents or dependent relatives, and provide incentives to families applicants to encourage childbearing, there are several allocation priority schemes under the HA, including “Elderly Persons Priority Scheme”, “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme”, “Single Elderly Persons Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”. Eligible applications under individual priority schemes will generally be processed earlier than applications by ordinary families. For example, eligible applications under the “Harmonious Families Priority Scheme” and “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme” will be processed earlier by six months and one year respectively, and will be assigned a G-number Equivalent Date. Details on the above-mentioned schemes and arrangement are set out at Annex.
 
(2) The progress of PRH allocation depends on various factors, including the applicants’ choice of district, the number of applications with same family size in individual districts, the supply of new and refurbished PRH flats in individual districts, the acceptance of flat offers by other applicants of higher priorities, the change of family particulars during the waiting period, etc. Therefore, the waiting time of applicants in individual districts may vary. For individual applicants, the latest allocation status of PRH applications in various districts can better enable them to estimate the waiting time required for them to be housed. In this regard, the Housing Department (HD) would publish in newspapers the latest allocation status of each district on a monthly basis, and would upload relevant information to the HA’s/HD’s website (www.housingauthority.gov.hk/en/flat-application/allocation-status/index.html 
     Moreover, general applicants can make reference to the future supply of PRH in different districts so as to estimate their waiting time. To this end, the Housing Bureau (HB) would update and publish the public housing production forecast for the next five years, and would upload the relevant public housing project information (including name of project, location, estimated number of flats, completion year, etc.) to the HB’s website (www.hb.gov.hk/eng/publications/housing/public/phpf/index.html 
(3) The HA has enhanced the allocation mechanism since September 2023 by taking into account an applicant’s place of residence when allocating flats based on his/her choice of district. In processing individual application under the enhanced allocation mechanism, the computer system will allocate a PRH flat which is near to the applicant’s place of residence to the applicant, subject to the availability of public housing resources in the applicant’s chosen district, in order to increase the applicant’s chance of accepting the allocated PRH flat nearer to his/her current place of residence. Following the system enhancement, the proportion of applicants who are allocated with flats near their place of residence has increased by about 10 per cent, and the acceptance rate has increased by about 5 per cent accordingly.
 
     Eligible applicants are entitled to three housing offers (one at a time). If applicants have special requests for PRH allocation (such as wishing to be accommodated to a specific area or a specific type of PRH flat in their choice of district) and have obtained the recommendation from government departments or organisations concerned (such as the Social Welfare Department or the Hospital Authority) supporting their special requests, the HD will, having regard to the applicants’ individual circumstances and subject to the availability of resources, arrange allocation of PRH flats to the applicants according to the area or type of flat recommended as far as practicable. If the applicant can furnish sufficient reasons that are acceptable by the HD for refusing the housing offer, the HD will arrange an extra flat offer for him/her according to his/her special need.
 
(4) In view of the supply and demand situation as well as the distribution of PRH flats, the HA had, on several occasions, reviewed and regrouped the geographical districts to speed up the allocation of suitable flats to applicants. Due to the different number of flats supply and distribution in all geographical districts, the choices available for applicants in different district may vary. Therefore, the smaller the district boundary, the chance for successful flat allocation will be lower. In order to improve the situation, the HA consolidated the number of PRH districts from fourteen to eight in 1993. This could expedite the allocation process and enable early allocation of suitable flats to applicants.
 
     In tandem with urban development, the number of public transportation facilities connecting various districts is increasing, which greatly shortens the travelling time between districts. The HA further reduced the number of PRH districts from eight to four in 1998 in order to speed up the allocation work even more flexibly and further expedite the PRH allocation. The prevailing arrangement with four districts allows a more even distribution of supply of flats in each district and more effective allocation work. In fact, the Average Waiting Time (AWT) of general applications as at March 1998 was 6.6 years. Upon consolidating the PRH districts to four districts by the HA, and coupled with the increased supply of PRH, the AWT gradually reduced to around two years in 2000, proven that it is a good arrangement for consolidating the districts.
 
(5) Comparing with the 1990s, the infrastructure and transportation facilities in Tung Chung are well-developed today. The public transport links between districts are also very convenient. Reservation of some newly completed PRH flats in Tung Chung for special allocation arrangements would be unfair to other applicants who are waiting for allocation.
 
(6) Among the general applicants who were allocated PRH flats in the past three years (i.e. from 2022-23 to 2024-25), around 43 per cent of the applicants accepted the first offer, while around 27 per cent and 30 per cent of the applicants accepted the second and third offer respectively. If a flat is not accepted by an applicant, we will immediately allocate it to another applicant.
 
(7) Putting into consideration that each applicant has different housing needs for PRH flats, the HA will provide up to three housing offers to eligible applicants. Applicants can decide whether to accept the offers in accordance with their individual preferences and circumstances. Applicants may refuse to accept the housing offer for different reasons (not limited to a single reason). The HA does not maintain relevant statistical information.
 
Note: The HA will issue a registration date to the applicant upon registration of a PRH application. As the registration date cannot be changed, the HA will issue an adjusted registration date (i.e. G-number Equivalent Date) reflecting the adjusted waiting time due to implementation of PRH allocation policies (e.g. waiting time credit of one year will be given for “Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme”, waiting time will be frozen for one year if all members included in the application are currently living in PRH, etc). If there is a G-number equivalent date in the application, that date will be taken as the basis for future flat allocation and implementation of PRH application policies. When a G-number Equivalent Date is issued, the applicant will, at the same time, be issued with a corresponding range of application numbers which may be used as a reference for enquiring about the PRH application status.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region