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The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, today (Monday) called on members of the community to support and actively participate in the consultation to be staged by the Education Commission to review the academic system and aims of education so that together we can draw up a blueprint for education for the 21st Century.

Speaking at an education forum organised by the Education Commission, Mr Tung said, "The territory-wide consultation about to be staged by the Education Commission, focusing on reviewing our academic system and aims of education, has my full support. In fact, I have great expectation of this review. After we have a thorough discussion on all the major links of education, I hope an outline of the blueprint for the 21st century will emerge."

Mr Tung reiterated that to educate our people for building a better Hong Kong was a primary task of the Government of the Special Administrative Region because good education was needed to enhance the territory's competitiveness and develop an enlightened, knowledge-based society.

"We will soon enter the new millennium. In an age of advanced information technology, competitions are growing keener as a result of global economic integration. In this new round of economic competitions, the one with ample knowledge will surely be the winner. At present, we in Hong Kong are faced with unprecedented challenges and ordeals. Out of our painful experience and the sense of threat, we find it more pressing to reflect on how we should cope with future challenges.

"To help Hong Kong to move forward and to enhance our competitiveness, we must place education on the top of our agenda," he said.

The Chief Executive said that despite the current economic downturn, education remained the single biggest item of recurrent expenditure of the Government of the Special Administrative Region. In 1999-2000, total recurrent expenditure on education will amount to HK$44 billion.

"That represents our investment in our future. We expect our investment to yield handsome returns. We expect our educational systems and policies to bring up creative and adaptive young people who are ready to take up their responsibilities towards our society and our country. We also expect to train up talents with an international outlook as well as a wide scope of knowledge and skills. They must take pride in their lifelong zeal for learning, seek pleasure in enriching themselves and share the virtues of human beings," Mr Tung said.

Mr Tung said that he had asked the Education Commission to conduct a thorough review of Hong Kong's academic system at all levels, from pre-primary to tertiary, so as to upgrade the overall quality of education and ensure that our system would produce the right talents for the future development of Hong Kong.

"The primary task of the Education Commission is to work with members of the public in identifying our overall educational aims, and study ways to ensure that the curricula, assessment methods and duration of each stage of education are in line with these aims such that our ultimate goal of fostering quality education will be fulfilled," he said.

"I am pleased to know that the Education Commission is launching a territory-wide consultation exercise on educational aims and is prepared to mobilise the community to establish a consensual orientation for educational development," he added.

End/Monday, January 25, 1999

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