PTU News Reporter
The current government does not care about public opinion and disregards education. Although the HKPTU has been fighting for an increase in educational resources for years, the current government still does nothing and so the urges from the sector has never been addressed. Up until the Chief Executive election this year, the 30+ election committee members of the HKPTU have finally succeeded in asking all three candidates to add our urges on education to their manifestos. Carrie LAM proposed an additional 5 billion dollars of concurrent appropriation which focuses on but not limited to the following six areas: (i) Establishing a pay scale for kindergarten teachers; (ii) Improving the staffing establishment of primary and secondary school teachers; (iii) Converting short-term contract teaching posts to permanent ones; (iv) Enhancing support for integrated education and special education; (v) Upgrading the hardware and software provided for schools; (vi) Granting financial aid to secondary school graduates to enable them to pursue degree courses in self-financing tertiary institutions; and exploring the feasibility of flexible repayment arrangements for newly graduated students of tertiary institutions to reduce their burden in paying back tuition loans. These all align with the propositions of the HKPTU.

