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Following is a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (October 25):
Question:
The Education and Manpower Bureau ("EMB") issued a policy document entitled "Empowering Learning and Teaching with Information Technology" in July 2004 as the Second Information Technology (IT) in Education Strategy (the Second Strategy) for the three schools years from 2004/05 to 2006/07. In this regard, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) taking the IT grant allocated by EMB to schools as the base, of the respective percentages of average expenses by each school in the past two school years on purchasing or repairing IT hardware, employing IT Coordinators, developing or setting up e-learning platforms or associated systems, purchasing digital-learning materials, as well as daily expenses on other IT-related services and consumables;
(b) given that the Second Strategy is drawing to its end, whether it will make reference to past experience and commission a research institute to conduct an overall study on the progress and effectiveness of the implementation of the Second Strategy;
(c) whether it has any plan to implement the Third Strategy; if it has, how it will enhance the gauging of views, especially those from the IT sector, in the course of formulating the new strategy; and of the relevant details and timetable; and
(d) whether it will devise a set of indicators to assess the adeptness of primary and secondary schools in applying IT in e-learning, use of digital teaching materials, and school management, so as to further assist schools in setting the directions and focuses for their IT education and e-learning development plans; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Public sector schools may apply to the Government for cash grants to implement measures under the Second Information Technology in Education (ITEd) Strategy. In the past two school years (2004/05 and 2005/06), the Government disbursed, upon successful applications, one-off special cash grants of $154.51 million in total to 920 public sector schools, i.e., $168,000 per school on average, to implement the Second ITEd Strategy. These grants are used by schools for non-recurrent expenditure items such as purchase of IT hardware. Table A shows the breakdown of the expenditure of the non-recurrent grants by a school on average over the past two school years.
In addition, the Government disbursed, upon successful applications, recurrent grants of $507.6 million in total to 1,019 public sector schools, i.e., $498,100 per school on average, in the past two school years to meet recurrent expenses on ITEd such as maintenance and repair of IT hardware and daily expenses on other IT-related services and consumables. Table B shows the breakdown of the expenditure of the recurrent grants by a school on average in the past two school years.
(b) Similar to the evaluation of the first ITEd Strategy, we have commissioned tertiary institutions to evaluate the progress and effectiveness of the Second ITEd Strategy in two phases. In phase one (from May 2005 to June 2007), the Hong Kong Institute of Education is commissioned to conduct surveys to compile a database on the implementation of the Strategy for systematic review and monitoring. The data include IT competency of teaching staff and adequacy of IT facilities in schools. In phase two (from January 2006 to August 2007), the University of Hong Kong is commissioned to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the Strategy with a focus on the impact of IT on empowering students' learning in selected key learning areas, and to recommend the way forward beyond the 2006/07 school year.
(c) We are formulating the Third ITEd Strategy with a view to consulting the public in the second half of 2007. We will involve the Steering Committee on Strategic Development of ITEd, which comprises representatives from different sectors including the IT sector, in the formulation of the Strategy.
(d) One of the proposed focuses of the Third ITEd Strategy is supporting schools to sustain the use of IT in enhancing students' learning. We will encourage schools to chart their own ITEd development plans and conduct data-driven, evidence-based self-evaluation to assess their effectiveness. To this end, we will develop tools and indicators for schools' reference, in respect of students' learning outcomes, school leadership, teachers' pedagogical practices and related professional development, e-learning and IT infrastructure. Details will be included in the Third ITEd Strategy.
Ends/Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:02
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