The Education Bureau today issued a circular memorandum to all secondary day schools, primary schools, special schools and kindergartens to announce arrangements for the provision of a $2,500 student grant in the current school year.

The Government provides a non-means-tested student grant for students of such schools every school year. The grant provision was regularised starting from the 2020-21 school year to alleviate the financial burden on parents.

All students, as at the date of application, studying in secondary day-schools, primary schools, special schools and kindergartens offering local or non-local curricula in Hong Kong are eligible for the grant.

Eligible children attending a special childcare centre subsidised by the Social Welfare Department, newly arrived children attending a full-time Initiation Programme funded by the bureau, and students taking the Vocational Training Council’s full-time programmes for Secondary 3 school leavers are also entitled to the grant.

Students of evening schools, students undertaking private studies, holders of student visas for entry into Hong Kong for studies, and holders of recognisance forms issued by the Immigration Department are ineligible, however.

The bureau said that starting the 2024-25 school year, electronic submission of student grant applications will be expanded to cover all school types.

Parents may log in to the online platform via an “iAM Smart+” account with a digital signing function to submit applications for their children from 6am on September 13 to 11.59pm on October 2.

They may also choose to return the completed applications in paper form to schools. However, each eligible student can only submit one application, either in electronic or paper form.

Schools must submit the completed forms to the bureau on or before November 13.

The bureau will normally disburse the subsidy in about six weeks after receiving an application. It will also inform parents of the application progress via SMS and email as appropriate.