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The Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur KC Li, today (August 9) attributed the improved performance of students in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE) to the efforts of schools and teachers as well as the implementation of the Medium of Instruction Guidance for secondary schools.
This morning, Professor Li visited two secondary schools in Tsuen Wan and Central to send his best wishes and encouragement to students receiving their result slips.
Compared with last year, the HKCEE results in 2006 were up in terms of the percentage of candidates obtaining Grade E or above in five subjects, obtaining 14 points or more in the best six subjects, obtaining passes in Chinese and English and in the number of students obtaining eight As or above.
During his visit to Po Leung Kuk Lee Shing Pik College, a Chinese-medium (CMI) school, Professor Li said, "Most of our secondary schools have adopted Chinese as the medium of instruction. The improved HKCEE results across many subjects are, in fact, the fruit of the medium of instruction policy and the concerted efforts of teachers and students."
"Citing this school as an example, the number of students obtaining 14 points or more in the best six subjects has soared by nearly 20 percentage points. Also on the rise is the number of students with passes in major subjects, like Chinese Language, Mathematics, Chinese History, Economics, History, Additional Mathematics, Physics and Biology."
"These are attributable to learning in the mother-tongue, whereby students can better absorb and master the subject knowledge.
"In English Language (Syllabus B), the pass rate of the school has gone up by more than 14 percentage points. This shows that CMI schools can uphold mother-tongue teaching and enhance students' English proficiency concurrently, if the schools are able to make the best use of resources to enhance learning and teaching."
Professor Li then went to St Joseph's College in Central. In spite of greater diversity in students' abilities, the English-medium school managed to lift the number of students obtaining 14 points or more in the best six subjects by almost five percentage points this year. The number of students with six As or above also went up by nearly three times to 22, including two students with 10 As.
Professor Li said, "It shows that the change in the number of banding from five to three in the Secondary School Places Allocation System five years ago has not brought adverse effects to the school. On the other hand, it has reduced the pressure and labelling effect on students, and given them more opportunities. With effective learning and teaching strategies, schools can help all students, including the elite ones, to excel. Schools with less than satisfactory results should reflect on their learning and teaching strategies.
"There is no question of HKCEE results being polarised. While both the number of elite students and the percentage of day school candidates obtaining passes in any five subjects are on the rise compared with last year, the change in day-school candidates obtaining Grade F or below in all subjects sat stands at 0.2 percentage point, which is comparable to 2005.
"Nonetheless, we will continue to provide resources for schools to implement enhancement and remedial programmes. Enhancing students' interest and motivation to learn is of paramount importance to remedial measures and we have already seen encouraging achievements in primary schools. Looking forward, the new senior secondary curriculum will provide more choices and will certainly benefit students with diverse abilities."
To assist schools and teachers in enhancing students' learning outcome, the Education and Manpower Bureau earlier announced a series of support measures, such as an extra provision of the Capacity Enhancement Grant totalling $1.65 billion for three straight years, an injection of $1.1 billion into the Language Fund for schools to raise students' language standards, and additional teachers for those secondary schools with more academically low achievers, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Issued at HKT 15:17
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