Most early childhood educators welcome the introduction of education voucher scheme but many fear they might lose their job, a survey revealed yesterday.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang in his policy address said the government would introduce the education voucher system next year to relieve the pressure on parents.

The survey, conducted by Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, found that 82.8 per cent of them said they welcomed the education voucher scheme.

But 77.9 per cent of the 326 early childhood educators interviewed were worried that their kindergartens would be closed because of financial difficulties as the voucher scheme would only benefit non-profit making kindergartens that charged not more than HK$24,000 tuition fees a year for half-day schooling and HK$48,000 for full-day classes.

More than 80 per cent of the respondents feared that those working in profit-making kindergartens would lose their jobs.

A kindergarten principal Ada Mak feared that tuition fees might be increased after the introduction of the scheme.

Teachers of kindergartens which enjoy HK$30,000 government subsidies for each 15 students would be delinked from a standard pay scale.