Press Release

 

 

LCQ10:New teachers should be professionally trained

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Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau Wai-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question :

It was stated in the Government's Policy Objectives this year that "the long term target is to require all new teachers to be professionally trained and degree holders". In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:

(a) of the current respective numbers and percentages of teachers in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools who have been professionally trained and are degree holders; and

(b) of the expected date for such long-term target to be achieved?

Reply:

Madam President,

According to the 1998 Teacher Survey, the number and percentage of teachers in primary and secondary schools by qualifications are as follows:


School      Total No.    No. of teachers   No. of teachers 

Levels(1)   of Teachers     who are            who are

                         professionally     professionally 

                            trained          trained and 

                         (percentage)       degree holders 

                                            (percentage)

Primary      21,187        18,233              5,095

                           (86.06%)            (24.05%)

Secondary    23,913        19,056              15,465

                           (79.69%)            (64.67%)

Note (1) : excluding English Schools Foundation Schools and international schools.

It is the Government's long-term target to require all new primary and secondary school teachers to be professionally trained and degree holders. While we have not set a specific date for the completion of the target, we are taking active measures to work towards the target. As a first step, we will develop the Hong Kong Institute for Education (HKIEd) to a degree-awarding teacher training institution. Starting from the 1999/2000 academic year, we are progressively upgrading the pre- service sub-degree training places for primary and secondary school teachers at the HKIEd to degree or above levels at the Institute or other tertiary institutions by phases. When the phased upgrading is completed by 2004, all graduates of pre-service training programmes for primary and secondary school teachers will be degree holders.

To underline the importance we attach to teachers' qualifications, we are continuing with the following on-going measures:

(i) In considering the appointment of teaching staff, schools are asked to give preference to persons who, in addition to the minimum qualifications, possess a professional qualification in education; and;

(ii) Untrained teachers are required to undergo in-service professional training as a condition of promotion and progression over salary bar.

Both measures are set out in the Codes of Aid.

The Government's long-term target to require all new teachers to be professionally trained and degree holders does not apply to the pre-primary sector. According to the 1998 Teachers Survey, 147 (about 1.7 per cent) kindergarten teachers are professionally trained and degree holders. However, the Government has been introducing various measures to upgrade the training and qualifications of kindergarten teachers. The percentage of trained teachers will be raised from 50 per cent in September 1999 to 60 per cent by September 2000. We have also advanced the target of requiring all newly recruited kindergarten principals to have completed the Certificate in Education (Kindergarten) course from September 2004 to September 2002.

End/Wednesday, November 17, 1999

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