Hong Kong 2006 - Education

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 levels. 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.

The school curriculum in Hong Kong is founded on 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 world. The framework is composed of three related components: key learning areas, generic skills, and values and attitudes. The generic skills and values and attitudes are developed in the knowledge contexts provided by the key learning areas.

In 2005, the Government endorsed the EC's recommendation on reforming the academic structure for senior secondary and higher education to help students cope with the challenges of the 21st century and the demands of a rapidly developing knowledge-based world. Under the new academic structure, all students will enjoy six years of secondary education as well as smoother and more varied post-school destinations and pathways.

University students will be provided with a four-year undergraduate programme that aligns Hong Kong with other major education systems in the world.

Curriculum reforms are carried out to motivate students to learn, to improve their knowledge and abilities, and to develop positive values and attitudes for lifelong learning and whole-person development.

The Government is committed to continuing the development of information technology (IT) as a tool as well as a subject to be taught in schools to better equip students to meet the challenges of the information age and to become lifelong learners. On average, every primary school had 119 computers and every secondary school 272 in 2006, all of which had broadband connections.

Since 2005, the Government has been providing schools with additional resources to improve their IT facilities, to set up e-learning platforms for students and to conduct seminars and workshops for their parents so that they can help their children to understand the ethical, legal and health issues related to the use of IT. In addition, over 10 000 needy students were provided with computers under a 'computer re-cycling programme' launched by the EMB in December 2005.

The EMB is formulating a 'Third Strategy in IT in Education' to further entrench IT in learning and teaching.

The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) was set up in 1996 on the recommendation of the Education Commission to advise the Government on language education issues in general. It also advises the trustee of the Language Fund on the policy and procedures governing the operation of the fund, which was set up in 1994 to provide financial support for initiatives to improve Hong Kong people's proficiency in Chinese, including Putonghua, and English. By the end of 2006, the fund had allocated about $2 billion to support 316 projects, in such areas as language learning, public education, resource development, teacher training and language education research.

The Native-speaking English Teacher (NET) Scheme, launched in 1998, has been implemented in all public sector primary and secondary schools. Besides teaching, NETs help change teaching practices by working with local English teachers to make learning English more interesting for students. At present, about 430 NETs are serving in secondary schools, and some 460 in primary schools. More NETs are being recruited to support English teaching in primary schools.

The Government's education policy is to provide appropriate learning opportunities for all students to help them attain all-round development. The EMB has put in place various support measures for NCS students. They include providing centralised support to 10 and five designated primary and secondary schools respectively in the 2006-07 school year, with intensive on-site support to help these schools to enhance further learning and teaching of the Chinese language subject. A supplementary guide is being developed for teaching of Chinese to NCS students under the umbrella of the central Chinese language curriculum framework. At the same time, tertiary institutions have been invited to run a Chinese Learning Support Centre to support NCS students and to help train Chinese language teachers in the designated schools.