The Government always exercises prudence in vetting infrastructural projects put forward by schools to achieve cost-effectiveness, while the Architectural Services Department provides professional advice on all projects, says Principal Assistant Secretary for Education & Manpower Patrick Li.

Responding to media reports alleging that the former Education Department had wasted public funds to build open design lifts, Patrick Li, who is responsible for Infrastructure & Research Support, said the issue had been taken out of context and the media failed to reflect the actual background to the lift projects.

To accommodate the enactment of the Disability Discrimination Ordinance in 1995, the Architectural Services Department has built additional lifts and related facilities for more than 100 premises under the Education Department. Only two were open design lifts, using steel and glass walls.

They were installed at the Baptist Sha Tin Wai Lui Ming Choi Primary School and the Curriculum Development Institute at 24 Tin Kwong Road. The Architectural Services Department conducted comprehensive assessments before reaching the decision to build external lifts for these two projects.

When the Department considers adding an outside lift to an existing building, it must look at its geological structure, how quickly it must be constructed and the nuisance caused to the building's users.

Architects generally opt for an open design instead of the conventional design to improve the building's spaciousness. They also factor in the increase in site insurance charges and the cost of additional foundation work needed to build the outside lift facility. The cost of building an open design lift plus related foundation works is usually about 10 % higher than that of a conventional, closed one. The ongoing maintenance fees for the open lift, however, are the same or lower.

Background

In line with the implementation of the whole-day operation of primary schools, the former Education Department allocated the old premises of Black Campus II, at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in Yuen Chau Kok Road, Sha Tin, to the afternoon Session of Baptist Lui Ming Choi Primary School to convert it to a whole-day school. It was renamed Baptist Sha Tin Wai Lui Ming Choi Primary School.

The Headmistress of the school, Tang Mei-sin, applied to the Department in July 2000 for the provision of a lift for the use of disabled students. According to the Disability Discrimination Ordinance enacted in 1995 and the Barrier Free Access Code in 1997, Government departments had to provide lift facilities for the disabled.

The Department commissioned the Architectural Services Department to conduct a feasibility study and eventually endorsed the addition of an outside lift. Afterwards, the school proposed adopting a glass-wall design that could be used by disabled students as well as for teaching and observation. The school made a formal application for adopting the "open" design in early 2001.