Press Release

 

 

Speech by Chief Secretary for Administration

********************************************

Following is the full text of the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, at the opening ceremony for "Leadership for the New Millennium" education lecture series launched by the Hong Kong Institute of Education this (Wednesday) afternoon:

Mr Ip, Professor Hayhoe, participants, principals, teachers, students, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank Professor Hayhoe for her very generous and gracious remarks. I haven't, unfortunately, come prepared to speak about the role of women although I would be delighted to do so on another occasion. Secondly, I would like to apologise to Mr Ip, Professor Hayhoe and indeed the management of the Institute and all of you for rescheduling this lecture which was originally scheduled for me. But unfortunately something rather urgent intervened at the last moment and I am very very grateful to the management for agreeing to reschedule this lecture. Thirdly, I am delighted to be back in this Institute having laid the foundation stone for the Institute. It is of course for me a very great honour - and indeed a considerable challenge - to be invited to open this lecture series launched by the Hong Kong Institute of Education's newly established Asia Pacific Centre for Education Leadership and School Quality, and to address specifically the issue of "Leadership for the New Millennium".

Let me say immediately that this initiative of itself bears eloquent testimony to the leadership role that this relatively new institution has already carved out for itself within a very short period of time.

The subject of your lecture series is at once daunting and timely. As we stand on the brink of the new century, there is no doubt that the astonishing advances in technology that have moved as rapidly as a brushfire across the cyberscape of the dying days of this century have already swept us towards frontiers that we barely knew even existed just a few short years ago. The pace and scope of change is as profound as it is rapid. Technology will lead to greater productivity, efficiency, convenience and an unbelievably, vast amount of information, all available at one's finger tips.

Globally, we live, and must ensure that we earn our living, in the New Economy, a world in which it has been estimated, more than half of the employment opportunities have not yet been created. We must learn to surf the wave of the knowledge-based economy, acquire new skills or be left behind. More of our future workforce will be composed of knowledge workers, that is, skilled manufacturing teams, information systems designers, professionals, managers, educators, scientists, researchers and the like. Strategically, there is a New World Order, but as yet imperfectly defined, and so potentially dangerous because of that. Closer to home, we live in a new constitutional order, and must find our way through the still largely uncharted waters of One Country Two Systems.

What has not changed is the need for leadership. Indeed, the radical nature of change facing us means that leadership - strong, effective leadership - leadership locally, nationally, and internationally - is more important than ever.

There is a part for all of us to play in this, and for the next half hour or so, I would like to focus on our respective roles and the challenges facing us. In many ways you and I represent in microcosm the continuum of the leadership process. Ask yourself : where would public administration - and public administrators - be without education and educators? One is a product of the other.

My starting point is that as a public officer, I can relate to teachers in many ways:

* we are both in the profession of serving the people;

* we operate in the public gaze, where people are often quick to blame;

* we are often looked upon as role models, tasked with the responsibility, though to varying degrees, of shaping the future of Hong Kong; and

* we are both faced with the changes, challenges and opportunities brought about by an increasingly open, sophisticated and technologically advanced society.

I remember when I first joined the civil service 37 years ago. Public administrators then were highly respected, if not feared, by the general public. We were much less exposed to public pressure whether it is from legislators, the media or the community at large. By and large we decided what was good for the public, we made the decisions and got on with implementing them. But times have changed. Today, every move of the Government is examined under a microscope and we are frequently challenged. Administrators are more and more regarded as public servants, and the whole community is our client. That's only as it should be. The community has, quite rightly, placed very high expectations on the Government and the officials who serve in it, and it is our duty to meet the high standards that they, and indeed we have set for ourselves.

Educators these days may find themselves in a similar situation. Just a couple of decades ago, teachers could well take their students' respect and obedient attention for granted. Their authority was seldom questioned, and their words usually obeyed. Today with a roomful of eager minds waiting to be enlightened, teachers find themselves facing a generation of students who cannot wait to challenge and question. Some of you who go into education with the ideal of nurturing the young may find yourselves at the end of each day of work feeling beaten and dejected. You may feel that you are shouldering the entire blame for falling standards. Life may not be fair, but that is the challenge and the excitement of it.

So I conclude that both you and I are in tough professions. There are frustrations but also considerable job satisfaction. As I said, we are constantly challenged, sometimes fairly, sometimes less fairly. But regardless, we have to respond. We must explain our thinking, our policies, our objectives and account for our performance. Leadership has a vital role to play here.

The first responsibility of leaders whether in the Civil Service or in education is to reinforce core values. Values are the conscience of any society. They must be lived and not just preached. In an increasingly materialistic society, it is all the more important for leaders to show integrity, convictions, confidence and strength of character. Success depends very much on our ability to value, and to motivate those whom we seek to lead so that we can all know our capabilities, recognize our limitations and become the best that we can be.

The second responsibility of leaders is to drive the search for improvement. Given the enormity of the challenges ahead, leaders in the civil service and in education need to achieve what I would describe as a step jump in performance. We need to move from promising to spend money, to promising to achieve results. In other words, managing for results by results. This means setting and measuring performance against targets, directing resources to key priorities and giving clear responsibility for delivery. Within the Civil Service we are already moving in this direction and I encourage you all to do the same. At the end of the day we all must share the commitment to delivering better public services.

The third responsibility of leaders is to create a broader enabling environment and the institutional arrangements in which the approach I have just described can flourish. Here I acknowledge Government has a particularly important role to play. Perhaps for too long, civil servants have lived with a paradox. We are civil servants but have not always supported good service. We have controlled when we should have empowered. We have criticised when we should have motivated. We are determined to change all this. Later in this lecture, I will outline how we intend to achieve our goal and deal with some of the proposals outlined in the Education Commission's Consultative Document released earlier today.

But first let us pause for a moment to consider what challenges are in store for us and how we should face them. When we look back on this 20th Century, we cannot but marvel at the remarkable, extraordinary changes that have taken place, particularly in our communication and transportation modes, all of which have made the world a smaller place. If we were to compare the 20th Century with the 19th Century, here are just a few of the things that did not exist in 1899 that are now integral parts of life in 1999 :

- the automobile and other forms of transport powered by the internal combustion engine as well as jet aeroplanes

- electricity in every corner of the world. Electric toasters, toaster ovens, microwave ovens, atomic energy

- space travel

- plastics - in everything from clothing to automobile fenders. Nylon, polyester

- radio, colour television, video recorders

- computers. The World wide web Satellite communications. Mobile telephones. The global market place.

The list of what we can do and will do is endless. That is why I believe we can look to the future with great optimism. Someone once said "The human mind is on the march and each day it gains even greater momentum". If we all do our part - if we grow with the opportunities and act with character and moral purpose - then for us and for our posterity, the best is truly yet to come.

The exponential growth in information technology has revolutionalised our daily lives. We live in an Information Age and we know that information pours in every second, twenty-four hours a day. It transcends national boundaries in a nano-second. Anytime, anywhere, as long as we have a computer, hooked to the net, we can have ready access to virtually whatever information we want. And a lot, sadly, that we do not want. To my mind, one of the greatest challenge of the Information Age is to learn how to manage this mountain of data; how - to use a distinctly pick and shovel-age metaphor - to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This new technological revolution is transforming how we do things; how we deal with other people. Indeed it is in many ways changing the nature of work and inter-personal relationships. For the better? I'm not sure! With a seemingly bottomless database readily available, people no longer need to be a repository of information. What we need is to know where to look for information and up-dated and accurate information at that.

Does it mean that we no longer need teachers? No. On the contrary, it is precisely because students will be exposed to so much more information that the role of teachers as their mentor stands out. We can all see how easy it is for young minds to be confused and in some cases go astray, faced with the myriad distractions in cyberspace; without the guidance of their parents and their teachers, there is a real danger that they will end up not better informed, not better people, but ill-informed about more things. Nor can the moral aspects of education be left entirely to technology. So teachers' professional skills will never be replaced by technology; they will only be enhanced by it.

With the dawning of the Information Age, what is our vision for this generation of students? What do we expect of our teachers, who are the lynchpin of the education system? If it is true that in this new age 'Nothing endures but change', the most precious gift that we could give to our young people is the ability to become independent minded and critical learners throughout their lives. Learning is a life-long process. It doesn't stop after secondary school, or after university or even after graduate school. In fact, if we follow our imagination, it never stops.

'Life-long Learning' is the central theme for the present review of the education system conducted by the Education Commission. More specifically, our teachers should be able to:

* inspire our students to derive pleasure from learning for the rest of their lives;

* help them acquire effective bilingual communication skills;

* instill in them a sense of commitment and responsibility towards themselves, their family, their fellow men and women, and their society;

* nurture their creativity and give free rein to their innovative spirit;

* cultivate their young minds to think critically and independently, discern right from wrong, and make full use of the information which bombards them every day; and finally

* nourish their souls so that they can always see joy and beauty in the world.

It is a tall order. But if we do care about the next generation, the leaders of tomorrow, I am afraid none of the benchmarks I have set down can be compromised. You, our educators, are therefore the most important leaders who will help shape the minds of potential leaders of the New Millennium. What you are, Hong Kong will be. You have a wonderful opportunity to change Hong Kong and indeed the world for the better.

The Government accepts that for real improvements to take hold in the education sector, there must be an enabling environment. I can assure you all that the Government will continue to support the teaching profession for we have no higher priority than education. We cannot have good education without good educators. We would like to empower you as teachers so that you can, in turn, empower your students.

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not followers. That is not to denigrate followers or diminish their place in society. Leaders would have little to do if there were no followers. It is simply that higher standards and quality of leadership lead to higher standards of living and quality of life for all, including, of course, the followers.

We believe that leadership is more effective when power is shared rather than centralised. This is the new spirit we are trying to promote in our education sector. That is why we are moving towards school-based management. We believe that educators, parents and students - not government officials - should be leaders running their own schools. We will, in the context of the on-going organisational reform of the Education Department, devolve more authority to schools, provide them with more flexible funding arrangements and allow them more autonomy to manage their own affairs.

We want to give educators the tools to motivate their colleagues and students, to develop and nourish talents and potential, and to pool the collective wisdom and effort within our schools to achieve the optimum results we all want to see, and which we all know are well within our grasp.

We hope that our educators, parents and students will all see themselves as partners in providing quality education, and cultivating a quality culture. If the reforms to the education system spearheaded by the Education Commission are to get off the ground at all, we need to shrug off the old mindset of always looking to the Government for solutions. Education is too important to be left solely to the Government. Every single stake-holder in the community needs to reflect on what he or she can contribute to education. Teachers and principals, in particular, will need to critically re-think what they can achieve with their newly empowered role.

With the devolution of more autonomy to schools, there needs to be greater accountability. We know that as a government, but it is no less true of the teaching profession or indeed of any other profession. But in order for teachers and principals to be accountable and responsible, they must be well equipped both academically and professionally to deliver quality education. In his inaugural address to celebrate the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Chief Executive has pledged to upgrade the quality of our teachers, with the long-term view of achieving an "all trained, all graduate" policy. In future, all teachers entering the profession are to be degree holders and professionally trained. As a first step to achieve this "all trained, all graduate" policy, we will develop the Hong Kong Institute of Education into a degree-awarding institution. Starting from the coming academic year, we will progressively upgrade all the pre-service sub-degree places of the Institute to degree and above levels.

We are also providing a number of in-service training opportunities, covering IT, language, academic and non-academic subjects, to enhance the professionalism of teachers. With all eyes on information technology, we are offering IT training places for all teachers over the next four years. The purpose is to allow teachers to harness the power of technology to facilitate effective teaching. We hope that by the 2000/01 school year, all teachers will have become computer literate. Two years later, they should all be able to use the technology comfortably and competently to support their teaching in the classroom.

I now come to a sensitive point. Many frown at the mention of "benchmarking". Some see it as a sign of the Government's mistrust of teachers' professional competence. Of course, I understand the underlying skepticism but I would ask you all to see this quality assurance exercise in a more positive light.

"Benchmarking" is commonplace in the business world. Benchmarks are like the milestones that tell drivers where they are and where they are heading for. They are set not to challenge or belittle but to safeguard our teachers' professionalism. They can rejuvenate public confidence in our teachers, and set out clearly for teachers the levels they have attained and how much further they need to go in achieving the stated targets.

This goes back to our need to respond to and manage changes and public expectation, which is central to our role as leaders in the new century. If, for instance, the public expect our teachers to guide and enable students to become proficient in Chinese and English, our language teachers must first be willing to meet the high standards laid down for themselves.

Here I would like to pay tribute to the contribution of the Hong Kong Institute of Education and the vital role it plays in upgrading the quality of teacher training and enhancing the status of teachers. The Institute came under the aegis of the University Grants Committee (UGC) in 1996 and has since become an integral part of the academic community at the tertiary level.

The establishment of the Institute testifies to the Government's commitment to enhancing teacher education. This marvelous purpose-built campus has state-of-the-art facilities to train our modern-day teachers. It started offering degree and post-graduate programmes this year. It is now on its way to fulfilling its mission to become a centre of excellence in teacher education in Hong Kong, producing teachers with good language and IT skills - skills that are indispensable to our economy and to our community. We have full confidence that, with dedication and perseverance, the Institute will in time become the premier teacher training institution in this region.

We also try, in small ways, to nurture a quality culture among educators. We have designated 10 September as "Teachers Day". We will also be introducing an award scheme for exemplary principals and teachers. We hope that these outstanding educators will be like ripples, creating a current that sweeps through and nourishes the whole profession.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have already taken up a great deal of your time. But I did want to do justice to the subject you asked me to tackle today. For the profession in general, I wanted to demonstrate to you that the government, to whom you look for leadership, has recognised the key challenges of the New Millennium, and has set about addressing in a coherent and comprehensive way the structure we need to fashion, and the culture we need to encourage, to ensure that our children, and indeed their children, will be well-equipped to face the exciting new frontiers that the New Millennium will bring.

President Harry Truman once said and I quote: "I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work." I think he might have been talking about the people of Hong Kong. Let us today re-dedicate ourselves to those qualities of energy and enthusiasm and hard work that have made this tiny place a model of freedom, tolerance and opportunity, a place which we can be proud to bequeath to our children.

Very soon we will be saying goodbye to 1999 and welcoming a new century and a new millennium. What will it hold for us. What will life be in the year 2010 or 2020. I don't have the answers to those questions but I am excited by the prospect that mankind may well be poised on the edge of the most exciting period in all of human history. And we will have our work cut out for us.

I leave you with this thought from yet another USA president, that is, from Ronald Reagan, who is the 40th President of the United States: "Education is not the means of showing people how to get what they want. Education is an exercise by means of which enough men and women, it is hoped, will learn to want what is worth having." I think herein lies the real challenge for all educators. I can promise you strong Government support in meeting this challenge and I wish you all every success. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

End/Wednesday, September 22, 1999

NNNN