Youths’ education, living woes ‘being addressed’
The Hong Kong government has taken concrete action in fulfilling its commitment to address young people’s concerns in education and homeownership by offering them subsidized flats and freeing teachers from additional administrative work.
Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said on Sunday the first project under the government’s Youth Hostel Scheme — the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups’ project in Tai Po — is expected to be completed early next year, providing 80 hostel places for eligible applicants aged between 18 and 30.
Writing in his Sunday blog, he said another project under the program, at Ma Tin Pok in Yuen Long, would be ready in the third quarter of 2021, providing 1,680 places — the highest number among all six existing projects.
The Youth Hostel Scheme, first put forward in former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s 2011-12 Policy Address, is aimed at “meeting the aspirations of some working youths in having their own living space and giving these youths an opportunity to accumulate savings to meet their aspirations”.
Under the scheme, the government would support nongovernmental organizations by bearing the full costs of building youth hostels on underutilized sites held by NGOs.
The program targets working youths who are permanent Hong Kong residents aged 18 to 30, with personal income not exceeding the 75th percentile of the monthly earnings of employed persons aged 18 to 30.
According to the Census and Statistics Department, the median monthly income of people aged between 15 and 24 last year was HK$12,400 and that for the 25 to 34 age group was HK$17,600.
Shortlisted applicants will be entitled to live in a hostel for no more than five years, with the monthly rent offered at 60 percent of the market price.
Currently, there are six such projects under the scheme. Youth hostels in Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, and in Mong Kok and Jordan in Kowloon and Yuen Long in the New Territories have made initial progress, said Cheung.
The six projects would provide a total of 2,800 hostel places for young people in the city.
In providing quality education for local youths, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the SAR government is striving to simplify policies and relieve the pressure on students, teachers and principals.
Speaking at the first Chief Executive Summit on Quality Education on Saturday, she said an extra HK$300 million has been set aside from the Quality Education Fund, and applications will be open to all schools, including special schools.
The extra funds and simplified procedures would save teachers and principals the trouble of having to handle heavy and complicated administrative work besides their teaching duties, Lam said.