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The delegation of teachers and principals, led by the Secretary for Education, Mr Michael Suen, continued its professional exchanges in Beijing today (September 28) while celebrating National Day.
During his stay in the capital, Mr Suen met Vice-minister of Education Mr Yuan Guiren and briefed him on the Education Bureau's key tasks in promoting national education in the Hong Kong school sector.
Mr Suen thanked the Ministry of Education for supporting Hong Kong in taking forward national education in the local schools. He introduced to Mr Yuan the bureau's initial plan for a major new initiative - the national education exchange project.
Under the exchange project, the Education Bureau would arrange about 10,000 senior secondary students and their teachers to take part in study and exchange programmes in batches in the three school years starting this year by visiting a host of Mainland cities ranging from Tianjin, Jinan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Luoyang to Xian. These visits would help participants reinforce their knowledge about the Mainland acquired from the local school curriculum and enhance their understanding about the country's economy, history and culture and nurture their sense of national identity.
Mr Suen said the programmes would help realise the mission and vision of the "Passing on the Torch National Education Activity Series" platform.
"With the support of the Ministry of Education and contributions from members of the Mainland and Hong Kong education sector and the wider community, I am confident that we will be able to achieve more in promoting national education in Hong Kong," he said.
Mr Suen expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Education for its support of the delegation which offered a good opportunity for Hong Kong teachers and principals to visit Beijing at the historic moment of the 60th National Day to see the latest developments of the Mainland's culture, politics, economy and education.
The visit would also help participating teachers improve their teaching effectiveness in various areas including national education and liberal studies.
Highlights of the delegation's activities this morning included attending the flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square and tours of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.
Mr Suen shared his views with principals and teachers during lunchtime on the Mainland's further development. He also took the opportunity to urge them to continue to help promote national education in schools.
The delegation attended a seminar in the afternoon on China's achievements in education over the past 60 years as well as the country's education reform and development blueprint up to 2020.
During the next few days, members of the delegation will be visiting military museum, Olympic venues and a newly developed industrial area near Beijing.
The delegation is co-organised by the Education Bureau and the Ministry of Education, with the support of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR and sponsorship from the Meng's Foundation Limited. The 150 members of the delegation comprise teachers and principals of kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools, as well as representatives from tertiary institutions and educational organisations.
Ends/Monday, September 28, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:13
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