School After-School Care Program | John Lee: Happy to See Results Exceed Expectations, Further Expansion Under Consideration

Chief Executive John Lee visited a primary school in the Kowloon City District that participates in the “After-school Childcare Service Scheme” earlier this month. In addition to making Easter eggs with the students, he also presented Easter bunnies and gift packs.

Over 200 primary schools take part, with more than 10k places as of last month

John Lee said in a post on a social media platform that in the scheme’s first year, it recruited 59 primary schools across seven districts. Last year, the 《Policy Address》 proposed further optimization of the scheme. As of last month, more than 200 primary schools had joined, offering over 10,000 places.

John Lee noted that many parents said that, as they originally needed to take care of their children, they could only work part-time. After their children joined the scheme, they could go out and work full-time with peace of mind. This not only eased financial pressure, but also reduced difficulties in parenting and discipline. Students also said that after participating in the scheme, they got to know many new friends, and they have seen positive developments both academically and socially. He expressed deep reassurance about this and also welcomed the fact that the scheme’s results were ideal.

Improving people’s livelihoods is the ultimate goal of governance; the scheme meets KPIs

He emphasized that improving people’s livelihoods is the ultimate goal of his governance, and the scheme is precisely one of them. The assessment results conducted by a university research team commissioned by the government also show that the scheme has achieved its key performance indicators (KPIs); some individual indicators have even exceeded expectations. He will work with the team to further expand the scheme in order to make full use of resources and benefit more families.