Curriculum Development Council

The Curriculum Development Council (CDC) is an advisory body that makes recommendations to the Government on all matters relating to school curriculum development from kindergarten to Form 6. Its membership includes heads of schools, practising teachers, parents, employers, academics from tertiary institutions, professionals from related fields or related bodies, representatives from the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority and the Vocational Training Council, as well as officers from the Education Department.

Curriculum

The school curriculum in Hong Kong is defined in terms of the five essential learning experiences, i.e. moral and civic education, intellectual development, community service, physical and aesthetic development and career-related experiences for lifelong learning and whole-person development of students. Henceforth, all students are entitled to the five learning experiences that correspond to ethics, intellect, physique, social skills and aesthetics.

    In 2001, the CDC developed an open, coherent and flexible curriculum framework that enables students to meet the challenges of a knowledge-based society. The framework is composed of three interconnected components: Key Learning Areas¹, Generic Skills² and Values and Attitudes³. The Key Learning Areas serve as the major knowledge domain of subjects providing contexts for the development of generic skills and values and attitudes. By making use of the curriculum framework, schools are now offering their students a broad and balanced curriculum.

    The school curriculum is sufficiently diversified, providing students at all levels with a variety of options to cater for their different aptitudes, abilities and learning needs. The orientation of the subjects under the relevant key learning areas could be academic, social, practical and/or vocational at the appropriate level of schooling.

Information Technology in Education

The Government launched the Five-year Strategy on Information Technology (IT) in Education in 1998 to enhance students' access to IT and the Internet, provide training and support for all teachers, use IT to support teaching in the school curriculum, and foster a community-wide culture that helps promote IT in education. Contract technical support service has been provided to all public sector schools by government contractors or by a cash grant, from April 2002. Seminars and workshops are continually organised to disseminate good IT practices in education, and education software facilitating teaching and learning is continually developed by the Government in collaboration with the school sector.

    The Hong Kong Education City (HKEdCity) website established in 2000 with assistance from the Quality Education Fund has successfully led and promoted quality education and an IT culture for lifelong learning through a network that comprises schools, teachers, students, parents and the general public. The HKEdCity was turned into an independent company wholly owned and funded by the Government in May 2002. It is currently the largest and most popular local educational portal with an average of over one million page views daily.

Language Education and Medium of Instruction

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) was set up in 1996 to advise the Government on language education issues in general. The Standing Committee identifies research and development projects necessary for the enhancement of language proficiency, and advises the Trustee of the Language Fund on the policy and procedures governing the operation of the fund, which was set up in 1994. By year-end, the Language Fund had committed around $400 million for 266 approved projects aimed at enhancing the language proficiency of the population. These language learning, public education, resource development, teacher training and research projects are conducted by a range of organisations, including local tertiary institutions, post-secondary colleges, schools, educational and professional bodies and government departments.

Native-speaking English Teacher Scheme

The Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Scheme has been implemented in all public sector secondary schools since 1998. It was extended to government-funded primary schools in 2002. In addition to teaching, NETs also help to change teaching practices by working with local English teachers to make the learning of English more interesting, thereby raising students' interest in learning and using English. At present, about 470 NETs are serving in secondary schools, and some 160 primary NETs were in post at the beginning of the 2002–03 school year. Primary schools that were not allocated a NET in 2002 are provided with a grant of $150,000 to enable them to hire native-speaking English Language Teaching Assistants. To support the implementation of the primary and secondary NET schemes, seminars and meetings for NETs as well as visits by Advisory Teachers are organised.