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The following is issued on behalf of the Board of Education:

The Board of Education (BoE) today (March 12) welcomes the Budget's proposal to launch a comprehensive programme of support services for youth with potential behavioral problems.

At its meeting today, members of the BoE noted that young people are the future pillars of our society. They agreed to the direction of tackling young people's problems through early identification and timely counselling.

Members were of the view that it was timely for the Government to work with the education and social service sectors to help students with potential behavioral problems by providing adequate counselling and support services. They noted that a trial scheme has been successful in the Sha Tin District and welcome that such support services can be extended to primary schools as soon as possible.

Members were also briefed on the recent developments of BoE's Sub-committee on Catering for Students' Diverse Learning Needs, Task Force on Promotion of Learning through Reading and Working Group on Promoting Parent Education. They appreciated the efforts made and agreed that the BoE should give its full support to the proposed tasks.

End/Monday, March 12, 2001

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