Hong Kong 2006 - Education

The Chief Executive announced in his policy address 2006-07 a major financial commitment to further improve the quality of pre-primary education with the introduction of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme in the 2007-08 school year. The scheme provides a fee subsidy for parents to enrol their children in kindergarten and financial support to teachers for professional upgrading. For each child older than two years and eight months attending a local non-profit-making (NPM) kindergarten or relevant classes in a local NPM kindergarten-cum-child care centre, a subsidy of $10,000 will be given in the 2007-08 school year. The sum will be increased progressively up to $16,000 in the 2011-12 school year. Under the scheme, kindergarten teachers and principals will receive financial assistance up to the 2011-12 school year to support their professional development. The goal is to upgrade serving kindergarten teachers and principals to the level of a Certificate in Early Childhood Education and a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education respectively by 2012.

The Government announced in May 2005 that a New Senior Secondary (NSS) Academic Structure will be introduced in September 2009. Under a new '334' system, all students will have to attend junior secondary schools for three years, followed by a further three years in senior secondary schools. The existing two public examinations will be reduced to one, opening the way for students to sit for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination. The length of university undergraduate courses will be extended from three to four years.

The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) has published the New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum and Assessment (C&A) Guides of the four core subjects and the 20 elective subjects. The C&A Guides aim to help schools prepare for the implementation of the NSS academic structure in the 2009-10 school year. The first group of secondary school students to benefit from the new arrangement are those enrolled in September 2006. The eight tertiary institutions funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC) have already announced the general admission criteria under the NSS structure.

A Language Fund set up by the Government provided grants for more than 1000 serving teachers to attend classes on the Mainland and in English-speaking countries to improve their proficiency in Putonghua and English. To better reflect actual language standards attained by candidates, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) will adopt standards-referenced reporting for the Chinese language and English language subjects of the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) starting from 2007. This replaces the existing norm-referenced reporting which only shows the performance of a candidate in relation to the other candidates.

Steps are being taken to implement the recommendations made by the EC in its Report on Review of Medium of Instruction for Secondary Schools and Secondary School Places Allocation.

Under the revised medium of instruction (MOI) arrangements, mother tongue would continue to be upheld as the principal MOI for secondary schools while students' English proficiency would be upgraded. Beginning in September 2010, schools wishing to use English as the MOI must fulfil the three prescribed criteria of student ability, teacher capability and support measures. The English Enhancement Scheme for secondary schools using Chinese as the MOI and the Additional Support Scheme for schools using the English medium were launched in March 2006 to assist schools to boost the English proficiency of students.

The revised Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System will be applied to students proceeding to Secondary One from the 2007-08 school year onwards. The maximum discretionary places quota for each secondary school has increased from 20 per cent to 30 per cent and the number of schools that students may apply for admission has increased from one to two, unrestricted by school nets. At the Central Allocation stage, students may choose a maximum of three secondary schools from any school net, in addition to a maximum of 30 schools within their own school net. These revisions will increase greatly the choices for parents and enable schools to have more diversified development.

To improve the competitiveness of Hong Kong's workforce and upgrade the quality of its manpower in a knowledge-based economy, the Chief Executive announced in the 2000 Policy Address that within 10 years, 60 per cent of Hong Kong's senior secondary school leavers would have access to post-secondary education. This objective was achieved five years ahead of schedule: the post-secondary education participation rate increased from about 33 per cent in the 2000-01 school year to over 60 per cent in the 2005-06 school year. The development has brought about not just more learning opportunities but also more diversified progression pathways for our younger generation.

A review of the post-secondary education sector was initiated in August 2005. Phase 1, which was conducted by a steering committee comprising representatives from the Government, service providers, quality assurance agencies and members of the community, was completed in March 2006 and a review report has been issued.

Phase 2 which focuses on the way forward and development of the post-secondary sector, commenced in late 2006 and is expected to be completed by mid-2007.

The Education Development Fund (EDF) was set up in 2004 with an allocation of $550 million to support education reform measures. With the injection of the EDF, the EMB had expanded its support services to 305 secondary schools, 461 primary schools and 15 special schools in the 2005-06 school year. In the 2006-07 school year, similar school-based support services were extended to the pre-primary sector — a 9 per cent increase in support services to the school and preschool sectors.