Applications for the pre-primary education voucher scheme will open on Monday, Secretary for Education & Manpower Prof Arthur Li says.

Parents who wish to receive the certificate of eligibility for the voucher before the beginning of the 2007-08 school year are advised to submit their application forms together with supporting documents to the Student Financial Assistance Agency on or before May 31.

Prof Li said this scheme would entail an additional $2 billion in spending a year, bringing to $3.1 billion the annual spending on the pre-primary education sector.

This has showed the government's commitment to help parents meet the costs of pre-primary education for their children, he added.

Starting Monday, application forms for the certificate of eligibility for the scheme together with information leaflets will be available in District Offices, Post Offices, Regional Education Offices of the Education & Manpower Bureau and the Student Financial Assistance Agency in Cheung Sha Wan. 

Eligible children born on or before December 31, 2004 and studying at nursery, lower and upper levels in the 2007-08 school year at local non-profit-making kindergartens charging school fees not exceeding $24,000 per student a year for half days or not exceeding $48,000 per student a year for whole days are eligible to redeem the vouchers for fee subsidies. 

The amount of fee subsidy is $10,000 per eligible student a year in the 2007-08 school year. It will be gradually increased to $16,000 in the 2011-12 school year.

Private kindergartens may redeem vouchers

To help parents, private independent kindergartens offering a local curriculum are allowed to redeem the vouchers within the three-year transition period from the 2007-08 school year to the end of the 2009-10 school year, provided they charge a school fee not exceeding the level set for eligible non-profit-making kindergartens and fulfill specified disclosure requirements.

The children concerned must have enrolled in nursery classes or above in these private independent kindergartens as of the 2007-08 school year.

Apart from providing a fee subsidy to parents, the vouchers will also be redeemed in support of teachers' professional development.

For the 2007-08 school year, the subsidy available to an eligible non-profit-making kindergarten for teachers' professional development will be calculated on the basis of $3,000 per eligible pupil a year.