The government will consider measures to alleviate the burden of parents whose children are studying in profit-making kindergartens before the introduction of education voucher system, Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li said yesterday.

Li said this after a meeting with 40 kindergarten representatives. Li, however, insisted that it would not be appropriate to use public funds to subsidize profit-making body.

The meeting was held in view of Chief Executive Donald Tsang's announcement in his policy address last month that an education voucher system would be launched for parents whose children were studying in non-profit making kindergartens that charge less than HK$24,000 for half-day and HK$48,000 for whole-day schooling.

Meanwhile, profit-making kindergartens demanded that they should also be covered by the scheme, and feared that they might be forced to close down as they would fail to attract more students.

Li acknowledged that some parents whose children were studying in profit-making kindergartens would find it difficult to send the children to institutions that were covered by the scheme.

"Some children are already studying in these kindergartens before the introduction of the scheme, and their parents have no choice at all. It is my responsibility to think of some measures to help these parents," the secretary said.

Li also said the government would help profit-making institutions turn to non-profit making.

But he insisted that profit-making kindergartens should not be subsidized in the long run. "These kindergartens understand that subsidies should be given to non-profit making ones," he said.

Hong Kong Kindergarten Association and head of a profit-making kindergarten, Tong Siu-fun, said she hoped Li would consider the difficult situations faced by the sector.