Support during June and Year-end Holidays for Children Without Conducive Home Environments

Mr Cai Yinzhou asked the Minister for Education (a) what support measures are available during the June and year-end holidays for students without conducive home environments or adult supervision; (b) what proportion of primary and secondary students utilised school-based holiday care or study programmes in 2025; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider funding independent holiday programmes to engage students who require stable, supervised environments during these extended breaks.

Mr Desmond Lee: Primary schools proactively identify students who would benefit most from after-school care, such as those without conducive home environments or adult supervision, and encourage their parents to enrol them in school-based Student Care Centres (SCCs). During school holidays, SCCs organise programmes, such as academic coaching, reading support and mentoring. They also offer activities in sports, arts, music and other programmes like coding classes.

In addition, primary and secondary schools partner community agencies or engage vendors to conduct holiday programmes. These include industry exposure programmes, interest-based activities and drop-in centres with mentoring support and age-appropriate activities. Students can access such holiday programmes in their respective schools. The Ministry of Education (MOE) does not track the proportion of students who used SCC or school-based holiday programmes in any given year.

MOE will continue to resource schools adequately to support students with additional needs and work with community partners to develop students holistically during both the school terms and school holidays.