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The Government will consult the community in 2004 on the three-year academic
structure for senior secondary education and four-year undergraduate programmes,
including the conditions, financing and development of supporting measures.
The reform was recommended by the Education Commission in its Review
of the Academic Structure for Senior Secondary Education and its Interface
with Higher Education Report published in May. Its major objective
is to remove the major constraints of the senior secondary and university
curriculum, and address related problems in senior secondary education
which at present is largely examination-oriented. The reform is expected
to reinforce whole-person development and widen the knowledge base of
students.
To enable students to learn effectively without language barriers, the
Government has adopted a MOI policy since the 1998-99 school year. Under
this policy, schools are required to use the appropriate MOI having regard
to student ability, teacher capability and language learning-support strategies
and programmes for students. Since the appropriate MOI for most students
is their mother tongue, 293 aided and government secondary schools have
been using Chinese as the MOI for junior secondary classes. There are
112 secondary schools which adopt English as the MOI.
In 2000, the Education Commisison put forward recommendations
to reform the SSPA system. With effect from the 2000-01 school year, the
Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) was abolished and an interim SSPA mechanism
introduced. The interim mechanism basically retains the various elements
in the old SSPA system, except with the increase of the percentage of
discretionary places from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, the abolition of
the AAT and the reduction of the allocation bands from five to three.
In mid-2003, the Education Commission set up a Working Group to review
the interim SSPA mechanism and the existing MOI policy for secondary schools,
with a view to recommending a long-term SPA mechanism and MOI arrangements,
which are educationally sound and beneficial to students. Public consultation
would be conducted in 2004 with a view to gauging the public's views on
the issues.
The Government is continuing with other aspects of the education reform,
which include the curricula and teaching methods, and the assessment mechanism
to help enhance learning and teaching effectiveness. On school curriculum
reform, the Government is capitalising on past achievements in taking
forward projects on curriculum planning, effective pedagogy and assessment.
More resources in learning, teaching and assessment will be developed
to support the primary and secondary curricula. For instance, the Curriculum
Development Council will develop, in collaboration with the Hong Kong
Examinations and Assessment Authority, combined Curriculum and Assessment
Guides for more examination subjects to align assessment with curriculum,
and learning with teaching. A pilot scheme of Career-Oriented Curriculum
for senior secondary students is also under way. Its intention is to promote
diversity in school curricula to meet the needs of students who would
benefit from learning in areas with specific career orientation alongside
more academic studies. |
