Manpower and Resources
Class size of aided special schools (special schools) is comparatively smaller than that of ordinary schools, ranging from 8 to 15 students per class, depending on the type of schools. At primary and junior secondary levels, the staffing ratio of special schools is 1.8 teachers per class. At senior secondary level, the staffing ratio for schools for children with intellectual disability (ID) is 2 teachers per class whereas that for schools offering the ordinary curriculum is 2.1 per class. To enhance the status and professional standard of teachers, the all-graduate teaching force policy has been fully implemented since the 2019/20 school year. To cater for the diverse needs of students, the Education Bureau (EDB) has also provided respective types of special schools with additional teachers, such as resource teachers for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as mobility instructors and teachers providing low-vision training to support students with visual impairment (VI).
In addition, various specialist staff are provided for different types of special schools to cater for the disabilities or learning difficulties of students. They include occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapy assistants, nurses, educational psychologists, social workers and brailling staff. As for the boarding sections, the specialist staff comprise wardens, assistant wardens, houseparents-in-charge, houseparents, programme workers and nurses. Special schools will optimise the use of their manpower and resources to facilitate multi-disciplinary collaboration, with a view to catering for the different special educational needs of students.
With a view to enhancing the quality of education, the Government has introduced various improvement measures for public sector schools in recent years, in which special schools also benefit from the measures. They include improving the teacher-to-class ratio, implementing the all-graduate teaching force policy, creating the post of school executive officer, providing a grant to strengthen information technology staffing, enhancing the manpower arrangements of vice-principals and deputy heads, improving the demarcation arrangements for headship rankings in secondary schools, and manpower at the middle management level in primary schools. Besides, the Government also introduced a number of additional measures to enhance the support for special schools, which include improving the manpower for specialist staff, upgrading the ranks of warden and assistant warden of boarding sections, increasing the provision of staff and grants for boarding sections, upgrading the ranks of occupational therapist and physiotherapist, creating a nursing officer rank, giving flexibility to schools to appoint registered nurses with psychiatric training, providing schools for children with mild ID with school bus driver posts, improving the rank of school bus drivers in special schools, allowing schools with vacancies in the posts of teacher assistant, cook, school bus driver and watchman to opt for cash grants in order to recruit corresponding temporary auxiliary staff, increasing the resources and manpower provision for the hospital school to enhance their senior secondary education services, enhancing the staff provision of resource teachers for students with ASD in primary and secondary sections, and extending the provision to schools for social development (SSDs), and providing a one-off Grant on New Technology in Classroom for special schools as well as a one-off Improvement of Care and Support Grant for special schools and their boarding sections. These measures enable special schools to provide students with better education, which in turn enhance the quality of education in special schools.
In the past few years, EDB has implemented a number of enhancement measures in special schools:
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to provide the schools for children with ID, schools for children with physical disability (PD) and the school for children with VI cum ID an additional school nurse. In addition, the school nurse provision is expanded to cover the school for children with VI and the school for children with Hearing Impairment (HI), so that these schools will each have a school nurse to strengthen their support for students with care needs (EDB Circular No. 6/2018 "Enhancement of the Provision of School Nurse and Social Worker in Special Schools");
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to enhance the provision of social work and guidance services in special schools, special schools with 60 or fewer approved capacity are provided with 1 school social worker, and subsequently 0.5 school social worker for every 30 students. Special schools are also provided with respective unit(s) of Consultation Service Grant according to the number of school social worker(s) to purchase consultation, supervision or other support services to enhance the support and supervision for the school social workers (EDB Circular No. 6/2018 "Enhancement of the Provision of School Nurse and Social Worker in Special Schools");
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to further enhance the staff establishment and resources of the boarding sections in special schools to improve the quality of services for the boarders of these schools. Improvement measures include upgrading the ranks of warden and assistant warden on the establishment of boarding sections with a capacity of 40 or above, and increasing the number of assistant warden and houseparent-in-charge on the establishment; improving Saturday and Sunday manning ratios for boarding sections of special schools offering 7-day boarding service, and providing an additional grant for the boarding sections of schools for children with PD, moderate ID, severe ID, VI cum ID to employ personal care workers or hire related services (EDB Circular No. 4/2020 "Enhancement of the Staff Establishment of the Boarding Sections of Aided Special Schools");
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to continue strengthening the support for the professional and auxiliary staff of special schools and allow flexibility in the appointment of staff to meet the needs of school operation and students. Specifically, such measures include upgrading the ranks of occupational therapist and physiotherapist, creating a nursing officer rank, giving flexibility to schools to appoint a registered nurse with psychiatric nursing training, providing schools for children with mild ID with school bus driver posts, improving the rank of school bus drivers in special schools, and allowing schools with vacancies in the posts of teacher assistant, cook, school bus driver and watchman to exchange for cash grants in order to recruit corresponding temporary auxiliary staff (EDB Circular No. 5/2021 "Enhancements to Support of Professional and Auxiliary Staff in Aided Special Schools");
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to provide all special schools with a one-off Grant on New Technology in Classroom to support their use of new technology to design teaching and learning activities that meet students’ ability and needs, enhance the learning effectiveness of students and enable them to develop abilities in different areas. Special schools may flexibly deploy the grant from the 2022/23 to 2025/26 school years (EDB Circular Memorandum No. 25/2023 "One-off Grant on New Technology in Classroom for Aided Special Schools");
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to provide all special schools and their boarding sections respectively with a one-off Improvement of Care and Support Grant to acquire technological products and special furniture/equipment catering for individuals with special needs as well as to procure relevant services, so as to improve the care and support to students and boarders, better safeguard their safety and help alleviate the burden and pressure on caregivers. Special schools may flexibly deploy the grant from the 2023/24 to 2026/27 school years (EDB Circular Memorandum No. 68/2024 "One-off Improvement of Care and Support Grant for Aided Special Schools"); and
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to enhance the staff provision of resource teachers for students comorbid with ASD in schools for children with ID, schools for children with VI, a school for children with HI and schools for children with PD, and to extend the provision to cover SSDs, so as to facilitate special schools to provide students comorbid with ASD with additional support in learning and development (EDB Circular No. 12/2024 "Enhancement for Supporting Students Comorbid with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Aided Special Schools").
Anti-epidemic support for special schools
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Click here to view more on the anti-epidemic support for special schools