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LCQ19: Secondary school class structures
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     Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Man-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (January 14):

Question:

     As the new senior secondary ("NSS") academic structure will be implemented formally in the coming school year, some secondary schools need to undergo class restructuring according to the guiding principles stipulated by the authorities.  It has been learnt that all secondary schools in Hong Kong have submitted to the authorities applications regarding class structures under the NSS academic structure for the next school year.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) in respect of the various types of secondary schools, namely government schools, aided schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools,

   (i) of the respective numbers of schools in each school year since 2000-2001;

   (ii) of the projected numbers of schools in each of the next two school years; and

   (iii) in respect of each education administration district, of the number of Secondary 1 places to be provided and the number of school-aged Secondary 1 students within the same district in the coming school year, as well as the discrepancy between these two figures; and

(b) of the respective numbers of government schools, aided schools and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools which will adopt various class structures under the NSS academic structure (set out in the table in Annex 1)?


Reply:

President,

     Each year, we issue a circular in March to invite all aided secondary schools to apply for recurrent and non-recurrent grants for operating classes and appointment of teaching staff in the following school year, and we approve their provisional class structures in early May.

     As the development of schools is different, some schools are still adopting an asymmetrical class structure. Some students who have completed Secondary 3 (S3) in these schools may have to be placed to S4 in other schools through the school places allocation mechanism. Upon the implementation of the NSS academic structure, we hope that students will be able to complete their six years of secondary education in the same school under normal circumstances. As such, we have to conduct class restructuring.  At present, we are processing the class restructuring applications made by some asymmetrical schools with a view to enabling students to continue their senior secondary education in the same school as far as possible. In general, these schools will have a reduction in their S1 classes and an increase in S4 classes to absorb their own S3 graduates, while keeping their overall number of classes unchanged. A few of the schools will only increase their S4 classes.  We will consider the applications in the light of the actual circumstances of individual schools.
 
     My replies to the questions are as follows:

(a)
   (i) and (ii) The numbers of various types of secondary schools from the 2000/01 to 2008/09 school years, and the projected numbers of these schools in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years are at Annex 2.

   (iii) The projected numbers of S1 places in various types of secondary schools in the 2009/10 school year are at Annex 3. As public sector secondary school places are planned on a territory-wide basis, we are not able to provide a breakdown of the number of school-aged S1 students by district.  According to our projection, the total number of S1 places to be provided by various types of secondary schools in the 2009/10 school year will exceed the number of school-aged S1 students by about 600.

(b) Under the existing mechanism, we conduct headcount of S1 students in public sector schools in mid-September every year to confirm the number of S1 classes to be operated by each school, and the approved number of S1 classes will be carried forward to S2 and S3 in the following two school years.  Headcount will also be conducted in mid-September of the year in which this cohort of students progresses to S4.  Similarly, the approved number of S4 classes will also be carried forward to S5 and S6 in the following two school years.  This headcount arrangement can reduce uncertainty for schools so that they can set their direction of development that facilitates more effective curriculum and manpower planning.  

     As the class structures of public sector schools will depend on their approved numbers of S1 and S4 classes each year, we cannot provide the projected class structures to be adopted by various types of schools under the NSS academic structure.  Nevertheless, the class structures adopted by various types of schools in the 2008/09 school year according to our records are set out at Annex 4.

Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:05

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