EDUCATION | 1,550 infractions related to continuing education scheme

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) announced yesterday that there have been 1,554 infractions related to the Continuing Education Development Plan between 2014 and 2016.
According to Kong Ngai, chief of DSEJ’s Continuing Education Department, of those, the eight prosecuted cases relate to “fraud and forged documents,” including one case where “one man used another person’s identity to attend a course.”
Since the program begun, five years ago, 520,000 applications were made to attend courses. Subsidies totaling MOP930 million were granted. A total of 110,000 residents attended courses. Averagely, each of the participants took part in two separate courses.
The government increased its grants to individuals to MOP6,000, up from MOP5,000 that was granted when the plan was first implemented between 2011 and 2013. Seventy percent of those 110,000 residents were under 39-years-old.
Yip Hak Kwong, director of Policy 21, the company responsible for the mid-term assessment of the scheme, reported that 90 percent of students expressed their support for the Continuing Education Development Plan. Correspondingly, Kong Ngai expects to see a more diversified structure in the future. Staff reporter