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Three Education and Manpower Bureau service centres will remain open on Saturdays even though the bureau will be joining Phase Two of the Government's five-day week scheme starting on January 1.
The three centres are: the Central Resources Centre, the Hong Kong Teachers' Centre and the Gifted Education Section (Support Measures for the Exceptionally Gifted Students Scheme). They are located within the bureau's Kowloon Tong Education Services Centre.
From January 1, 13 of the bureau's service centres will halt their services on Saturdays. "Among them will be our four Regional Education Offices -- Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, New Territories East and New Territories West. Centres providing services in the areas of special education, educational psychology, guidance and discipline, and school places allocation etc will no longer operate on Saturdays," a bureau spokesman said today (December 19)
"We have collected views from users of the 13 centres, which remained open on Saturdays after the launching of Phase One in the middle of the year. We have decided that these centres can move to a five-day week since most of the services they provide are delivered on a school-based basis, i.e. through school visits by our professionals. The small number of cases warranting visits to these centres on the part of service recipients can be readily accommodated during office hours from Mondays to Fridays," the spokesman said.
For details of the new opening hours of the bureau's service centres, please check the bureau's website at http://www.emb.gov.hk or the Government's dedicated website at http:www.gov.hk/info/5day/.
People are also welcome to make use of 24-hour hotlines set up by the bureau (2891 0088) and the central government (1823) for enquiries. The Teachers' Helpline (2892 6600 -- five lines) will continue to operate from 8am to 8pm daily.
Meanwhile, all other bureau sections/offices/units are open from 8.30am to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays and closed on Saturdays. The opening hours for all government schools will remain unchanged.
Ends/Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:01
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