Reform of Academic Structure for Senior Secondary and Higher Education

The Government will take a balanced view on feedback collected during the public consultation on the academic structure for senior secondary and higher education. To prepare for the implementation of the new academic structure, the Government will finalise the curriculum framework for all subjects for senior secondary forms, complete the relevant Curriculum and Assessment Guides and expand professional development programmes and school-based support to enhance the reform capacity of teachers and principals in the coming few years. The Government will also provide other supporting measures to ensure its smooth implementation.

Curriculum Reform

Continuous efforts will be made to sustain the success of curriculum development in basic education through the four key tasks, namely 'Moral and Civic Education', 'Reading to Learn', 'Project Learning' and 'Information Technology for Interactive Learning'. Schools are encouraged to make school-based adaptation to the central curriculum and use appropriate strategies of learning, teaching and assessment flexibly.

A pilot scheme of Career-Oriented Curriculum (COC) for senior secondary students who would benefit from learning in areas with specific career orientation alongside the more academic studies is also under way, with the total number of courses increasing from 12 in 2003-04 to 32 in 2004-05. The EMB has commenced a quality assurance exercise for selected COC courses to facilitate articulation to further studies or employment.

School Based Professional Support

In July 2004, the EMB set up a $550 million Education Development Fund to strengthen the professional support to schools to help them take forward the education reform.

Introduction of Specialised Teaching in Primary Schools

The Government is going to provide additional resources initially for three years starting from the 2005-06 school year to public sector primary schools with 12 or more classes to improve the teacher-to-class ratio with a view to reducing teachers' workload and implementing specialised teaching.

Review of the Medium of Instruction (MOI) for Secondary Schools and Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System

Under the current MOI 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.

Meanwhile, the Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) was abolished and an interim SSPA mechanism has been introduced.

In mid-2003, the Education Commission set up a Working Group to review the MOI arrangement for secondary schools in conjunction with the SSPA system. The Commission will start public consultation in early February 2005 with a view to finalising its recommendations to the Government by the end of 2005.

Language Education

Efforts will continue to create a more motivating language learning environment and to specify a clear and realistic set of expected language competencies for reference by students and working adults. Some examples of work to be done in this regard include the development of standards-referenced HKCEE on Chinese and English Languages by 2007, the development of a common proficiency scale of Putonghua in Hong Kong, strengthening the work of the Task Force on Language Education, and encouraging schools, parents and students to make better use of the mass media as a resource for language learning.

Developing Hong Kong as the Regional Education Hub

To develop Hong Kong as the regional education hub, the Government will further relax the immigration control to allow more non-local students to come to Hong Kong for studies with effect from the 2005-06 academic year.

Further Development of Qualifications Framework (QF)

In the coming year, increased efforts will continue to reach out to the stakeholders to promote the QF and foster the formation of more ITACs for different industries. This is being done by: