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Following is the full text of the speech by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the HKSAR First Teachers' Day Reception today (Thursday):
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to come to this evening's Reception to celebrate the Teachers' Day with schoolmasters, teachers, students, friends who show much concern about the teaching profession, as well as educators from Beijing.
To show respect to teachers has been a long-cherished Chinese value. For this reason, I declared September 10 each year as "Teachers' Day" in my first Policy Address delivered after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Teachers always give proper and patient guidance to all students without discrimination. We are all deeply indebted to our teachers, who well deserve the respect of the whole community.
Today is our first Teachers' Day since our reunification with our motherland. It is also the Teachers' Day of the mainland. This occasion is especially meaningful as celebration is held by the local and mainland educators together.
Despite the lack of natural resources, Hong Kong has developed into an important commercial and financial centre of the world over just a few decades. Our success is mainly attributable to our quality human resources. All along, we have attached great importance to able persons. Amongst our guests here this evening, some are winners of the past Outstanding Persons Elections and the Outstanding Students Awards. An outstanding person must be knowledgeable and well cultured with integrity, determination and innovation. These qualities enable him to be responsive in keen competition, stand up to challenges and remain incorruptible and law-abiding. Since the 50's, Hong Kong has undergone many significant changes. Today, we are facing great difficulties and challenges we have never had over the past few decades. With the talent of the Hong Kong people and the joint efforts of the entire community, I have confidence that we are able to tide over the hard times and turn challenges into opportunities.
As the Chinese saying goes, "it takes 10 years for a tree to grow but 100 years to bring up a generation of ability". Persons of excellent ability have to be reared with great attention and care by institutions and teachers. The responsibilities of a teacher lie not only in the inculcation of knowledge, but also in the setting of good examples and cultivating of virtues. Therefore, we expect teachers to be knowledgeable and have a strong sense of mission in teaching with noble values, broad vision and a zeal for continuous self-improvement. To commend teachers for their devotion to the teaching profession and to recognise the achievements made by schools, the Quality Education Fund plans to launch an award scheme for outstanding teachers and schools. To promote the culture of quality education, teachers and schoolmasters with outstanding performance and schools with great achievements will be shortlisted for commendation. An ad hoc group has already published a consultation paper to solicit public opinion on screening criteria and other details. I hope that people from various sectors will actively respond and share with us their valuable opinion.
With the approach of the 21st Century, Hong Kong is experiencing social, economic and political changes. As technology develops rapidly, we must provide our children with quality education for all-round development in areas including ethics, the intellect, the physique, social skills and aesthetics to enable them to cope with challenges ahead and to maintain Hong Kong's competitive edge in the world. The Government has allocated considerable resources for the provision of quality education at all levels. Education has always had the largest share of public spending. This year, the recurrent expenditure on education exceeds $38 billion, which accounts for 21 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure of the Government. The gross expenditure on education is well above $45 billion, which is approximately 18 per cent of the Government's gross expenditure. At present, Hong Kong is confronted with economic difficulties. But we understand fully the importance of investment in education. To ensure that our huge investment in education will yield positive results, we must do our best endeavours to implement various new policies and measures on education, including programmes on quality education, information technology education and the use of instruction medium. The success of these programmes will depend on the hard work of education workers at the front line. You are all entrusted with the important mission of rearing the younger generations for our country. To achieve this goal, we must stride ahead hand in hand and bring up new generations with concerted efforts.
Here, may we sincerely pay our tribute to all teachers. Thank you.
End/Thursday, September 10, 1998
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Photo caption: The Chief Executive, being led by Director of Education (centre), is chatting with one of the guests at the reception.
