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The Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, met senior officials of the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau and visited two local schools during his trip to the city today (March 19).
Mr Suen shared his views with the Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, Mr Zhang Baoquan, and Deputy Chief Mr Li Changgong, on topics including further improvements to transport arrangements for cross boundary students and enhancing exchanges on educational matters between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Mr Suen said he was delighted to see Shenzhen and Hong Kong making good progress on co-operation in various aspects on the education front. Among them, the Sisters School Scheme allows Hong Kong students more exposure to developments on the Mainland.
Introduced in 2004, the Sisters School Scheme has been extended to Guangdong Province, Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo and Shenzhen. The scheme offers opportunities for dialogue and exchanges between students, parents, teachers and principals of the two cities to enable them to enrich their knowledge and broaden their horizon for the benefit of quality education on both sides.
The scheme has also been instrumental in promoting national education by enhancing students and teachers¡¦ understanding of the Mainland.
There are currently 40 secondary and 42 primary schools in Hong Kong with sister schools in Shenzhen and it is planned that another 15 to 20 schools will pair up with schools in Guangdong, including Shenzhen, in 2009-10.
During his stay in Shenzhen, Mr Suen visited two local schools - Shenzhen Senior High School and Shenzhen Oriental English College.
A renowned boarding school set up by the Shenzhen municipal government, the Shenzhen Senior High School adopts modern pedagogy and makes use of digital information and the Internet for teaching and learning. It has about 4,000 students, including some from Hong Kong.
Shenzhen Oriental English College, a private school, comprises kindergarten, primary, secondary, international as well as Hong Kong and Macau sections. Of its total student population of 3,200, about 300 are from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It is also one of the two Shenzhen schools participating in Hong Kong¡¦s Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) system on a trial basis.
A rising number of Hong Kong people have been moving to the Mainland in recent years, and some parents prefer their children to adapt to Hong Kong¡¦s education system while living on the Mainland. The Education Bureau and its Shenzhen counterpart have worked out a trial scheme to allow eligible students from Hong Kong studying in Shenzhen Oriental English College and Luohu School for Hong Kong Children in 2009-10 to take part in the SSPA for allocation of places in Hong Kong schools for enrolment in 2010-11.
Earlier today, Mr Suen attended the signing ceremony of the memorandum on co-operation between the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He also attended the ground-breaking ceremony of CUHK¡¦s graduate school building to show support for the enhanced co-operation between the two places in the higher education sector.
Ends/Thursday, March 19, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:13
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