HONG KONG 2005

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 senior secondary forms. Its membership includes heads of schools, practising teachers, parents, employers, academics from tertiary institutions, professionals from related fields or related bodies, representatives from the HKEAA and the VTC, as well as officers from the EMB.

Curriculum reform is the core component of education reform. It aims to motivate students to learn, to enhance their knowledge and abilities, and develop positive values and attitudes to establish a solid foundation for lifelong learning and whole-person development. Building on the strengths and achievements attained, senior secondary education has been improved to prepare students to meet the challenges of the future.

In 2002, in response to the need for curriculum development in schools, the CDC developed the Basic Education Curriculum Guide setting out the themes essential for curriculum development throughout schools. At the primary education level, school curriculum leaders have been appointed to support primary school heads to lead curriculum development.

At the secondary school level, new Curriculum and Assessment Guides for the senior secondary subjects will be developed to help change ideals into practice. Professional development programmes have been organised to help schools prepare for the switch to the NSS academic structure. In addition, secondary and primary schools, university academics and curriculum development experts have worked together on research and development projects to produce useful reference material for schools.

Through various advisory services, collaborative lesson preparation and action research, schools were able to build up their curriculum reform capacity and adopt more effective practices to enhance school-based curriculum development, including more flexible time-tabling and curriculum continuity and assessment.

The school curriculum in Hong Kong is defined in terms of the five essential learning experiences: moral and civic education, intellectual development, community service, physical and aesthetic development and career-related experiences for lifelong learning and the whole-person development of students.

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.

The Government endorsed the Education Commission's recommendation on reforming the academic structure for senior education and higher education to help students cope with the challenges of the 21st century and the demands of a rapidly developing knowledge-based society. Under the new academic structure, all students will enjoy six years of secondary education and a smoother and more varied route to success in life.

University students will be provided with a four-year undergraduate programme that aligns Hong Kong with other major education systems in the world. Building on the solid foundation of the basic education curriculum, the senior secondary curriculum will better meet the demands of the modern world and to cater for a wider range of student aspirations, interest, aptitudes and abilities.

The Government is committed to continuing the development of information technology (IT) in education to prepare students for the information age and to equip them to become lifelong learners. A survey conducted in early 2004 found that on average, each primary school had 91 computers while secondary school had 247, all of which have broadband connection to the Internet. These are well above the original targets of 40 in primary schools and 82 in secondary schools under the first five-year strategy on IT in education launched in 1998. The curriculum reform has reinforced the role of IT as a tool to support the reform measures.

Riding on the achievements of the first five-year strategy, a new student-centred IT in education strategy was launched in July 2004 to enhance community-wide support for the sustainable development of IT in education. The key goals of the next strategy are to empower learners and teachers with IT, enhance e-leadership capacity in schools, develop more digital resources for learning to improve schools' IT infrastructure, provide continuous research and development and promote community-wide support.

Additional resources have been provided for schools since March 2005 to improve IT facilities and services, set up e-learning platforms for students and conduct seminars and workshops for parents so they can help their children understand the ethical, legal and health issues related to the use of IT. Professional development programmes, including refresher training courses and in-service courses, will continue to be arranged to help teachers integrate IT in learning and teaching. Teachers have also had access to learning centres since the start of the 2004 school year to help them develop, share and disseminate innovative learning and teaching methods using IT.

During the year, expositions, activities and competitions continued to be held to promote community participation in the use of IT in education. A computer re-cycling scheme was launched in December which attracted territory-wide donations and resulted in the delivery 20 000 recycled computers to needy students.

Supported by the Quality Education Fund, Hong Kong Education City (HKEdCity) was launched in August 2000 to promote quality education and IT for lifelong and life-wide learning. It quickly became one of the most popular education portals in Hong Kong and was corporatised in 2002. HKEdCity will continue to strengthen its role as an agent for sourcing, editing and disseminating digital education resources, with the support of teachers, experts, and the private sector.

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, known as SCOLAR, was set up in 1996 to advise the Government on language education issues in general. The 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 fund had committed about $1.09 billion for 305 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.

The Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Scheme, which was launched in 1998, has been introduced in all public sector secondary schools. It was extended to public primary schools in 2002. In addition to teaching, NETs also help change teaching practices by working with local English teachers to make the learning of English more interesting. At present, about 470 NETs are serving in secondary schools, and some 310 in primary schools. More NETs are being recruited to support English teaching in primary schools.


¹	Existing subjects are grouped into eight key learning areas: Chinese language; English language; mathematics; science; technology; personal, social and humanities; the arts; and physical education.
²	Nine generic skills helping students to learn collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, information technology, numeracy, problem-solving, self-management and how to study.
³	For example: national identity, responsibility, perseverance, respect for others, commitment, trust and modesty.