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The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) today (February 27) announced a series of long-term support measures for teachers, improving the teaching establishment and reducing their workload to give them some relief and to allow them to concentrate on teaching.
The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur KC Li, and the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Fanny Law, met with a number of education bodies this morning to exchange views on support for teachers of primary and secondary schools.
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Speaking after the meeting, Professor Li said, "Mrs Law and I have maintained a continuous dialogue with frontline education workers on issues of mutual concern. We realise what teachers need is a stable working environment and what they want is to focus on teaching. In this connection, the bureau has drawn up a comprehensive strategy to help them.
"Some of the difficulties teachers now encounter are due to the fact that the declining birth rate has led to under-enrolment in schools and undermined the stability of the teaching career, while others are job-related challenges, such as the very demanding task of handling student diversity. These are coupled with high expectations of the community and parents, and heavy administrative work."
To help teachers overcome these difficulties, the EMB will implement a series of long-term support measures, involving recurrent expenditure of $1.76 billion per year and 2,800 permanent teaching posts (including 1,400 new posts):
* To implement specialised teaching in all primary schools and adopt the class-to-teacher (permanent establishment) ratio of 1:1.5 (involving 1,120 permanent teaching posts, including 660 new posts);
* Turning the five-year post of Primary School Curriculum Leader to permanent establishment (involving some 620 teaching posts);
* Improving the student guidance personnel (SGP)-to-class ratio from 1:24 to 1:18;
* Gradually providing additional teachers at junior levels of the secondary schools which have admitted Band Three and bottom 10% students (involving 1,050 permanent posts, including 730 new posts);
* Making the basic Capacity Enhancement Grant a permanent provision;
* Simplifying the process of School-based Assessment for Chinese and English in Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination 2007 and finalising the detailed arrangements by mid-April;
* Reviewing the arrangements for Territory-wide System Assessment;
* Further improving the arrangements for External School Review; and
* Opening the Quality Education Fund to applications throughout the year.
Professor Li explained that making support measures permanent could provide teachers with a more stable working environment, whereas strengthening the teaching establishment and improving SGP service could help them better cater for student diversity.
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"With additional teachers, schools can adopt group teaching according to students' ability. In effect, the improved teacher-to-student ratio means that schools can practise small class teaching, where necessary."
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Professor Li pointed out that having invested heavily in education in recent years, the community had high expectations of the quality and effectiveness of education. Schools were also expected to enhance their transparency and accountability.
"We are pleased that most teachers are positive about this. But they need our support and also hope that the implementation details of various quality assurance measures can be adjusted, if circumstances so warrant.
"Thus, we have decided to simplify the process of School-based Assessment for Chinese and English in Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination 2007 and will finalise the details by mid-April. The arrangements for Territory-wide System Assessment and School External Review will also be reviewed and further improved.
"In addition, the Quality Education Fund will have its vetting procedures further streamlined and will be open to applications throughout the year. While teachers will no longer need to rush to meet the deadline, school authorities are reminded to take teachers' workloads into consideration before submitting proposals to tie in with their school development," he said.
In fact, part of the pressure that teachers face comes at the school level. Last month, the EMB appointed Professor Edmond Ko as Chairman of the Committee on Teachers' Work to look into the problem from an independent perspective and make due recommendations within this year. A Teachers' Helpline was also set up to provide a counselling service for teachers.
Attending today's meeting were representatives from the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, Hong Kong Subsidised Primary Schools Council, Grant Schools Council, Hong Kong Association of Heads of Secondary Schools, Union of Heads of Aided Primary Schools of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers.
Professor Li said he hoped to maintain frank communication and collaboration with the education sector to support teachers in performing their teaching duties and carrying out education reform for quality education and the benefits of students.
Ends/Monday, February 27, 2006
Issued at HKT 19:17
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