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The Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, said today (September 17) that to further enhance the New Senior Secondary Academic Structure, the Education Bureau would provide different modes of support to schools and teachers.
This would ensure that the educational goals of "student-centred, whole-person development, multiple pathways and life-long learning" could be attained, he said.
Mr Suen was speaking during a visit to the Hong Kong True Light College at Ap Lei Chau.
Together with the Deputy Secretary for Education, Dr Catherine K K Chan, Mr Suen visited the school to understand its situation and its implementation of the New Senior Secondary curriculum, especially Liberal Studies.
"I am glad to know that the school made full preparation for the implementation of the New Senior Secondary curriculum. This includes making good use of additional resources to hire teachers and teaching assistants to support teaching of the four core subjects - Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and Liberal Studies - and enhancing the planning of curriculum and creating space for teachers' collaboration,"he said.
He watched a Secondary Four class in a Liberal Studies lesson and participated in the students' discussion of current issues in Hong Kong. Mr Suen praised the students for their ability to apply critical thinking skills during the discussions to differentiate between personal opinions, substantiated arguments and facts.
Mr Suen said, "The introduction of Liberal Studies is a response to the needs of Hong Kong society to provide multi-disciplinary learning opportunities to senior secondary students. Liberal Studies will enable students to link learning with everyday life to enhance their social awareness and widen their horizons."
So far, the Education Bureau has provided relevant professional development programmes to about 8,200 Liberal Studies teachers. In this school year, the bureau will continue to offer different types of programmes to both new and existing Liberal Studies teachers, including 170 seminars and workshops, and provide Web courses with different themes. With Hong Kong Education City, the bureau has also developed a Web-based Resource Platform for Liberal Studies to provide teachers with resources relating to the curriculum.
As regards other support measures, starting from this school year (2009-10), the Education Bureau and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority will jointly implement the Liberal Studies School Network Scheme. Teachers with experience in both teaching and public assessment of subjects related to Liberal Studies will be hired as District Co-ordinators. They will provide timely and effective support to schools within the district on curriculum and assessment areas, and co-ordinate the marking standardisation of School-based Assessment in these schools.
The EDB will continue to organise seminars and meetings for parents on a needs basis to provide updated information on learning and teaching as well as assessment criteria of NSS Liberal Studies, and will publish a parent's handbook to help parents support their children in Liberal Studies.
Mr Suen also talked to one of the Physical Education teachers and some of the students learning archery at the school's sports centre. He learned that the school offered a multi-activity Physical Education programme comprising a variety of sports, such as fencing, archery and indoor rowing, to enrich the "Physical Development" component of Other Learning Experiences (OLE) for its students. This Physical Education programme provided students with opportunities to access different sports. Some of the students have broken the Hong Kong junior records in national or world archery youth championships.
Mr Suen was also interviewed by school reporters. He chatted with some students to understand their views about the New Academic Structure and their learning from participating in OLE activities in or outside school.
Ends/Thursday, September 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:26
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