香港擴大課後照顧名額 部分家庭仍稱不易獲得服務

Places for eligible families surge to 10,500 from 2,915 but staffing shortages mean not all eligible families can benefit from scheme A pupil takes part in after-school activities at CCC Chuen Yuen First Primary School in Tsuen Wan. Photo: Karma Lo Hong Kong’s after-school care scheme has expanded rapidly since the government removed its quota cap this school year, with some operators saying they have sufficient capacity to meet demand, while others are already recruiting more staff to keep pace. While some mothers said the programme had freed them up to return to work after years of full-time caregiving, manpower constraints at some centres meant not all eligible families were able to access the scheme. The School-based After School Care Service Scheme was launched in 59 schools in September 2023 and expanded to more than 200 by June, offering 10,500 places for low-income families, after the government lifted the quota cap in the 2025 policy address. In the 2023-24 academic year, 2,915 places were offered across participating schools, with each institution setting its own place quota. Under the scheme, the government provides funding through the Community Care Fund, primary schools provide the premises, and approved non-governmental organisations (NGOs) handle daily operations. St James’ Settlement is one such operator. It partnered with six primary schools in the pilot year and has since grown to 10. At a partner school involved since the pilot began, student participation jumped by more than 30 per cent in 2025-26 – the first year after the quota cap was lifted and the biggest annual increase recorded by the operator. “Most schools were still waiting to see how things went during the pilot years,” said Roz Ma Tsz-kin, senior service manager for charity services. “With the cap now lifted, they have become much more confident about joining. We also reached out to schools we had collaborated with for some time.” Senior Service Manager Roz Ma says schools are more confident about joining the scheme after the cap was lifted. Photo: Karma Lo Kasey Kam, 38, joined the scheme last year after a decade as a full-time homemaker. She said it had allowed her to take up part-time work in food delivery. “My son’s teacher recommended the scheme to help with his homework,” Kam said. Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {"type":"inline-plus-widget"} “At home, we would fight over it. But after joining, he became more self-driven and even started planning ahead for the programme activities after exams and during the summer holiday.” Her son, 10-year-old Kayden Kwok, is one of 75 students at CCC Chuen Yuen First Primary School enrolled in the programme run by the NGO. He is now taking an acrobatics class during the post-exam period and preparing to perform with his classmates at an evening gala this month. Ma said the NGO still had sufficient capacity to absorb the growth, though the summer period required more varied programming beyond the term-time homework focus. Kasey Kam (left) and her son Kayden Kwok. Kam says the programme has freed her up to take on part-time work. Photo: Karma Lo The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, another major operator, reported a similar need to diversify its summer programme to include artificial intelligence (AI), digital literacy, outdoor activities and hobby classes. The number of its partner schools rose from nine in the 2024-25 academic year to 24 in 2025-26 – a 167 per cent jump after the quota cap was removed. The NGO said the expansion meant it had to recruit additional staff to maintain its teacher-student ratio of 1:8 for general students and 1:5 for those with special educational needs. While operators spoke of hiring more staff to meet growing demand, not all eligible families were able to secure places. Carmen Ng, a single mother in her thirties with four children in Sham Shui Po, said her eldest daughter – then a Primary Six non-Chinese-speaking pupil – was turned away from the scheme last year. The girl was attending a four-day Chinese language support class under another government-funded scheme, but Ng wanted the five-day after-school care programme for more consistent coverage. A teacher said her daughter was “not an urgent applicant” since she was already enrolled in another programme. “As a single parent earning on my own, five days of care would help a lot more. The government said there was no cap, but it is hard to actually access the scheme,” she said. Her younger son, a Primary Two pupil with special educational needs, was also rejected last September due to insufficient manpower and had to wait in the school office until she finished work. A social worker eventually placed him in another NGO programme a month later. The Social Welfare Department said roughly a quarter of programme beneficiaries since the scheme’s launch had special educational needs, but it did not track participation by ethnic minority students. It added that the scheme was intended to complement other government-funded after-school programmes targeting different needs. The department also runs two longer-standing, NGO-operated after-school care programmes, with the enhanced version extending service hours into evenings, weekends and school holidays to support needy families. Both offer fee waivers for low-income families.