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Following is a speech by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, at the blessing and open day ceremony of St Rose of Lima's College today (Saturday):

Cardinal Wu, distinguished guests, Sister Fung, teachers, parents and students,

It gives me great pleasure to be here this morning at the Open Day Ceremony of the School.

The starting point for the development of a vibrant and knowledge-based community is good education, and the starting point for the delivery of good education is high performing schools. I have been visiting schools nearly every week since I became the Secretary for Education and Manpower four and a half years ago, talking to principals and teachers and observing how lessons were conducted inside and outside classrooms. This experience re-affirms my belief that no other person is in a more influential position than a principal or a teacher in shaping the minds, values and outlook of our future generations.

But frontline educators could not really do a proper job if they were placed in a straitjacket. We need to provide them with greater flexibility to manage their resources and to experiment different teaching practices tailored to their students. Hence the importance of school based management.

Under school-based management, schools are given greater flexibility, conditioned on accountability and increased transparency. We all know well that as a government, we have to be accountable to the legislature and the public. A similar principle applies to a school. It has to be responsible for the quality of education services it provides to its clients, i.e. parents and students, and in a wider sense, the government and the community which provide resources for the delivery of the services.

In this respect, we will require all new schools receiving Government subsidies commencing operation in the 2000/01 school year to enter into a time-limited service agreement with the Government. The agreement will set out, among other things, various performance targets and indicators against which the school's performance will be measured. Renewal of the service agreement on its expiry will be determined by the performance of the schools. To further promote accountability in the school sector, we will also apply the service agreement concept to existing schools gradually.

If schools are held accountable to the parents, then the views of parents should be fed into the decision-making process. In this regard, we propose that from the 2001/02 school year onwards, schools should invite at least two parent representatives to sit on the school management committee. Secondly, schools should be prepared to divulge more information on their performance. For years, many parents complain that they know little of the management and performance of schools. The result is that parents have to rely on hear-say and cannot make an informed choice in selecting a school for their children.

The Home-School Cooperation Committee, with the support of the Education Department, recently published a profile of kindergartens and it will produce one on secondary schools in April this year. The profile will cover a multi-factored and balanced description of a school, from facilities to subjects offered, from the school management to teaching and learning activities, and from its academic performance to its achievements in extra-curricular activities. Through this publication, parents will gain a better and more comprehensive understanding of schools. They will know what a school does, what it believes in, and the characteristics that distinguish it from other schools.

One of the most important pieces of information which the school profile will contain is the value-addedness of a school. We fully recognise that high-performing and effective schools should not be identified simply by comparing absolute performance of their students in certain areas, and that we should take into account the difference in the level of schools' intakes. The concept of value-addedness is therefore important because it does not measure absolute performance but the improvements made to students' performance throughout their schooling years. It must be the mission of every school and every educator to help students develop and progress as he or she goes through the grades from admission to graduation.

The existing value-addedness indicator captures only a school's academic performance. This is because it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to measure objectively a student's degree of improvement in non-academic-areas. But it is not an excuse to hide the academic performance of students from the parents. Let me make two points to reject this excuse. First, academic performance is important to parents and students, particularly in the core subjects of English, Chinese and Mathematics. Secondly, schools have ample opportunity and space to include a full description of their students' non-academic performance covering ethics, intellect, physique, social skills and aesthetics in the school profile. On the Government's part, we will continue to remind parents to pay more attention to non-academic achievements. But it is wrong to deny parents the right to know how the school performs academically including the results of public examinations.

St. Rose of Lima's College has a distinguished history of half a century. I would encourage the school to set a good example and disclose more information on its students' achievements including the results of public examinations. Also I understand that your school is taking steps towards a more open management. For example, the school has set up a home-page and through this, parents and the school management could exchange views. I hope that your school will take further steps to make the management even more transparent, including inviting parent representatives to sit on the school management committee in the near future. I am confident that the synergy generated by the concerted efforts of the management and parents will enable the school to do even better in this new premises.

Thank you.

End/Saturday, February 26, 2000

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