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The Education Commission (EC) is responsible for advising the Government
on the overall educational objectives and policies, and the priorities
for implementation as well as coordinating the work of all other major
education-related advisory bodies on the planning and development of education
at all levels. Following the merger of the Education and Manpower Bureau
and the Education Department, the EC and the Board of Education, which
advised the department on educational matters, were merged in early 2003
to streamline the advisory structure. After the merger, the EC also advises
the Government on implementation issues with important policy implications
to ensure better synergy between policy formulation and implementation.
In September 2003, 137 000 children were enrolled in 768
kindergartens. All of them are privately run.
The Government plays an important role in promoting
the development of quality kindergarten education through various means.
They include upgrading the qualifications of kindergarten principals and
teachers; providing financial support to kindergartens in the form of
rent reimbursement and a subsidy scheme to employ more qualified teachers
without increasing kindergarten fees substantially; conducting quality
assurance inspections and promoting, in the longer term, school self-evaluation
and an external monitoring mechanism.
Free and universal basic education is provided for children aged six
to 15 to enjoy six years of primary education plus three years of basic
secondary education. Admission to Primary 1 in aided and government schools
is through a centralised system, and at the end of Primary 6 all students
are provided with secondary school places. Most secondary schools offer
three-year basic and two-year senior secondary courses leading to the
Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination as well as a two-year sixth-form
matriculation course leading to the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination.
All Secondary 3 students who are willing and able to continue with their
study are given the opportunity to receive subsidised Secondary 4 education
or vocational training. About one-third of Secondary 5 leavers may further
their studies in subsidised Secondary 6 and 7 school places.
In September 2003, 418 300 children were
enrolled in government and aided primary schools and 411 600 children
in government and aided secondary schools. Government and aided school
places made up about 90 per cent of the school places. To inject more
diversity into the school system and give parents wider choices, the Government
in 1999 introduced various measures to facilitate the development of Direct
Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools and non-profit-making private independent
schools. These measures include allocating government-built school premises
for operation of DSS schools, and allocating land at a nominal premium
with a capital grant for construction of DSS/non-profit-making private
independent schools. In September, there were 51 DSS schools, offering
4 per cent of the school places. A total of 10 more non-profit-making
private independent schools are scheduled to commence operation in phases
by 2007.
Fifty-five international schools and 15 schools operated
by the English Schools Foundation were operating in Hong Kong in September.
These schools form an important social infrastructure to maintain Hong
Kong's status as an international business centre and a vibrant cosmopolitan
city. They offer different non-local curricula, namely, American, Australian,
British, Canadian, French, German-Swiss, International Baccalaureate,
Japanese, Korean and Singaporean, and provide a total of 32 600 places.
The Government's main policy objective is to integrate children with
special educational needs into the community through coordinated efforts
by non-governmental organisations with government support. In the 2003-04
school year, 117 mainstream schools adopted a whole-school approach to
supporting about 700 students with special educational needs or with a
mild disability. In addition, 62 special schools are operated for those
with severe or multiple disabilities, of which 19 provided boarding facilities.
Together, they provide 8 500 day places and over 1
000 boarding places. Fifteen special schools are also serving as
resource centres providing professional and resource support for ordinary
schools which have admitted students with special education needs.
In addition, the Government also provides support
services for gifted students to develop their potential. For instance,
there are relevant training courses for teachers and resource packages
to support school-based gifted education.
The Vocational Training Council (VTC) was established in 1982 to provide
and promote a cost-effective and comprehensive system of vocational education
and training for school leavers and adult learners to acquire skills and
knowledge for lifelong learning and enhanced employability.
The VTC provides high quality and internationally
recognised full-time pre-employment education and training courses, at
various levels ranging from the craftsman level to higher diploma level,
through its Hong Kong Institute of Education, VTC School of Business and
Information Systems, training and development centres. It also operates
industry-wide training schemes and a voluntary trade testing and certification
scheme.
A self-funded Continuing Professional Development
Centre has been set up to promote continuing professional education by
providing short courses and organising professional examinations such
as the Insurance Intermediaries Qualifying Examination and the Mandatory
Provident Fund Schemes Examination.
Altogether, some 147 000 full-time and part-time places
were available during 2003 for both school leavers and people in employment.
The Construction Industry Training Authority provides training for the
construction industry. It operates three construction training centres
as well as a management training centre, a trade testing centre and a
safety training centre. The Authority is funded by a levy of 0.4 per cent
on the value of all construction works exceeding $1 million. It offered
a total of 4 264 full-time and 130 221 part-time
training places in the 2003-04 training year. In addition, the Authority
conducts trade tests for construction workers to assess the standards
of skills achieved, and certification tests for operators of construction
plants.
The Clothing Industry Training Authority provides
training courses for the clothing and footwear industries. It is financed
by a levy of 0.03 per cent on the Free-on-Board value of clothing and
footwear items produced in and exported from Hong Kong. It operates two
training centres to deliver both full-time and part-time courses at technician
and craftsman levels. In 2003-04, the Authority provided training to 480
full-time and 5 570 part-time students.
Five skills centres, three run by the VTC and two
by non-governmental organisations, prepare people with a disability for
open employment or mainstream vocational education and technical training.
Collectively, they provide 1 362 full-time places, 310 of
them residential, for the 2003-04 training year.
Many higher education institutions have responded positively to the Chief
Executive's policy initiative to provide more post-secondary education
opportunities to secondary school leavers by offering self-financing programmes.
In 2003-04, more than 120 accredited self-financing
programmes are offered by 18 post-secondary institutions, providing some
12 000 full-time places at sub-degree level or above. These are in addition
to some 9 500 publicly funded places at sub-degree level offered by the
City University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the
Hong Kong Institute of Education, the VTC and the Hong Kong Academy for
Performing Arts.
Hong Kong has 11 degree-awarding higher education institutions, eight
of which are publicly funded through the University Grants Committee (UGC).
The other three not funded by the UGC are the publicly funded Hong Kong
Academy for Performing Arts, the self-financing Open University of Hong
Kong and the Hong Kong Shue Yan College.
The UGC is appointed by the Chief Executive to advise
on the development and funding of higher education and administer public
grants to eight publicly funded higher education institutions. It comprises
non-local academics, local academics and local professionals and businessmen.
Civil servants staff its secretariat.
The UGC also plays a major role in quality assurance
and promotion of excellence. Major initiatives include the Teaching and
Learning Quality Process Reviews and Areas of Excellence scheme. The former
enhances the institutions' awareness of the importance of teaching and
learning quality, and the latter aims to identify existing areas of strength
in the institutions and develop them further through concentration of
efforts and resources.
Each of the eight higher education institutions funded
through the UGC is an autonomous statutory body with its own ordinance
and governing body. They are free to manage their own affairs within the
parameters of the law. Seven of the eight are universities and the remaining
one is a teacher education institution. They all have distinctive and
complementary roles that reflect their varying origins, missions and the
way they have responded to Hong Kong's complex and evolving needs. Following
a comprehensive review of the higher education sector, the UGC will take
a more strategic approach to the higher education system, by developing
an interlocking but differentiated system whereby the whole higher education
sector is viewed as one force in the regional and international arenas
of higher education, with each institution fulfilling a unique role based
on its strengths.
At present, 14 500 first-year first-degree
places are available in institutions funded by the UGC, covering about
18 per cent of the 17-20 age group. On top of this, a further 30 per cent
of people in the same age group have access to other local higher education
opportunities (for example, sub-degree programmes and vocational training)
or go to universities overseas. To enhance the global outlook of local
students, the institutions are encouraged to enrol non-local undergraduates
and taught postgraduates, who may number up to 4 per cent of the institutions'
approved targets for publicly funded places. In view of the enthusiastic
response to the institutions' enrolment campaigns, institutions are allowed
to enrol an additional 4 per cent of non-local students using private
funding with effect from 2005-06. As for research postgraduates, the institutions
are no longer subject to any quota in enrolling non-local students.
Degrees up to doctorate level awarded locally are
widely recognised by institutions of higher learning around the world.
Academic standards are guaranteed by the institutions' appointment of
external examiners from prominent overseas universities and colleges and
the monitoring of teaching and learning quality assurance processes by
the UGC. The Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation validates courses
and programmes offered by higher education institutions that are not self-accrediting.
The Government commissioned school operators to run evening courses at
primary to senior secondary levels for 6 073 adult learners in the 2003-04
school year. It also subvented a variety of adult education programmes
operated by non-governmental organisations, offering a total of 17 124
places.
The Government launched Project Yi Jin in October 2000 to provide an
alternative route to expand the continuing education opportunities for
secondary school leavers and adult learners. The programme aims to upgrade
students' knowledge in biliteracy, trilingualism, and information technology
application through combining academic pursuits with practical skills
training. Successful completion of the programme will lead to a qualification
comparable to five passes in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination
for employment and continuing education purposes. The programme is run
by member institutions of the Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary
Institutions, and has both full-time and part-time modes. In the 2003-04
school year, over 3 600 full-time and part-time students enrolled in the
programme.
To improve the quality of the manpower through lifelong learning, the
Government proposes to set up a qualifications framework (QF) and an associated
quality assurance mechanism. In its simplest form, a QF is a hierarchy
of qualifications organised into different levels. It will provide clear
information on standards of courses and providers in the academic and
vocational and continuing education sectors. With clear and flexible progression
pathways, learners can draw up their own road maps to upgrade themselves
and acquire higher qualifications. Given a transparent quality assurance
mechanism and through the major stakeholders' participation in the process,
qualifications in the QF will be given wide recognition.
The Government has consulted the public on the proposal
and examined the feedback. It has also conducted a number of pilot studies
on the framework. The Government proposes to develop the QF step by step
with the advice of the Manpower Development Committee, which was set up
in October 2002 to advise on policies for developing Hong Kong's human
resources.
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