The Quality Education Fund Steering Committee has approved $143 million in grants for 551 applications.

These include 229 made under the fund's designated themes Learning & Teaching Effectiveness, Information Technology in Education, Research on Assessment for Learning and Promoting Collaboration in the Education Sector, and other initiatives, and 322 on information technology infrastructure upgrades.

Another 562 IT infrastructure upgrade projects have also been approved in principle with grants to be disbursed soon.

The grants approved range from $20,000 to $4 million in this call. The overall success rate is 62%, compared to 46% in the previous call.

Curriculum development

Committee chairman Tai Hay-lap said many applications aimed at developing the Liberal Studies curriculum for secondary school students under the new senior secondary structure. Some applications help promote students' national identity or instill positive life values.

"These reflect the education sector and the community's support of Government's education priorities through offers of bottom-up initiatives," Mr Tai said.

The Quality Education Fund has also continued its staunch support for information technology in education by earmarking $182 million in the next three years to help schools upgrade out-dated computers.

The disbursement will be matched by funds raised by schools and provided by the Education & Manpower Bureau.