Information Technology in School Education

Computer subjects have been offered to secondary students since the
early 1980s. They cover three major areas: computer systems,
information processing and programming. They help students develop
the necessary information technology (IT) skills required for more
advanced studies and for the workplace. The School Administration and
Management System (SAMS) was developed in 1994 to support schools
in planning, management and administration and to facilitate electronic
transmission of information between schools and the ED.

With the rapid development and extensive applications of IT, the
government has attached more importance to IT in school education,
especially as a teaching and learning tool across the curricula. In 1997,
the government introduced new measures to provide 15 multi-media
computers for every public sector primary school to support a Computer
Awareness Programme and a Computer Assisted Learning Programme,
and to set up Information Technology Learning Centres (ITLCs) in
prevocational and secondary technical schools to support learning of
technical and practical curricula through up-to-date technology.
Additional equipment will be provided to schools from the 1998-99 school
year. More than 400 secondary schools (or 88 per cent) now have access
to the Internet. Primary schools will do the same. Apart from hardware,
teacher training has also been provided. In parallel, the department has
reviewed curriculum design and school facilities to complement the
implementation of IT in education.

To further strengthen IT in primary and secondary education, the Chief
Executive's 1997 Policy Address mentioned that a long-term strategy for
IT in education would be formulated to promote the use of IT to enhance
teaching and learning. The main tasks are to equip teachers with the
necessary IT skills; to apply computer-assisted teaching and learning
across the curriculum; and to place students in an environment where
they can use this technology as part of their daily activities and grow up
to use it creatively. The aim is to have teaching and learning in at least 25
per cent of the curriculum supported through IT and to see it applied
comprehensively in school life within five years -- and for all teachers
and Secondary 5 graduates to achieve competence with IT tools within
10 years.

The 1997 Policy Address announced a series of measures, to be
introduced in 1998, to effect immediate enhancement in IT in education.
These include:

• enhancing provision of computer facilities in primary and secondary
  schools to 40 and 82 on average, respectively;
• procuring and developing new software to support teaching and
  learning;
• enhancing IT training for teachers, and providing professional and
  technical support to schools;
• introducing pilot schemes in 20 schools to establish best practices
  for IT applications in teaching and learning; and
• preparing for an education-specific intranet for multi-dimensional
  communication and sharing of information within the school sector.

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