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The following is issued on behalf of the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence Steering Committee:
The Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (July 9) commended the recipients of the Chief Executive's Award for Teaching Excellence (CEATE) (2009/2010) at the award presentation ceremony for their dedication to enhancing students' language proficiency and communication skills.
Chinese Language Education and English Language Education are the two key learning areas of this year's CEATE. The Chief Executive presented the awards to 29 primary, secondary and special school teachers. Another 32 teachers were presented with the Certificate of Merit by the Acting Secretary for Education, Mr Kenneth Chen.
Mr Tsang said, "The primary aim of education in Hong Kong in the 21st century is to help students achieve high language proficiency and learn how to learn, which form the basis for life-long learning and whole-person development."
He said he was pleased to learn of the success of the awarded teachers in promoting Chinese reading through various means and in creating a favourable English-learning environment.
"The accomplishments of the awarded teachers give me much confidence that this generation of students will be well-versed in the languages and equipped with good writing and communication skills."
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Chairman of the CEATE Steering Committee, Mr Pang Yiu-kai, said, "To enhance students' language proficiency, the awarded teachers have adapted their school-based curricula, explored effective teaching strategies and arranged a great variety of language activities for their students. They have also furthered their studies enthusiastically to enhance their professional standard and set good examples for their colleagues."
Mr Pang praised the awarded teachers of the previous five CEATEs for actively organising and participating in a wide range of continuing professional development activities. A few months ago, they launched a pilot exchange programme during which they disseminated their exemplary teaching practices through opening their classrooms for lesson observation.
"New themes - Moral and Civic Education, Information Technology Education, Guidance and Discipline as well as Curriculum Leadership - will be introduced to the CEATE in the next four years to identify excellent teaching practices in more teaching areas," Mr Pang said.
The CEATE this year received 133 nominations. After assessment, 10 nominations (comprising 29 teachers) were selected for the Award for Teaching Excellence while 14 nominations (comprising 32 teachers) were presented with the Certificate of Merit.
Assessment of nominations focused on teachers' performance in the four domains of professional competence, student development, professionalism and commitment to the community and school development.
The results of CEATE (2009/2010) are available on the CEATE website (www.ate.gov.hk). "The New Landmark in Education - CEATE", a special 30-minute TVB programme on exemplary teaching practices will be broadcast on TVB-Jade at 3.30pm on July 17.
Sharing activities on excellent teaching practices will be rolled out in the coming school year. Details will be announced on the CEATE website.
Nominations for CEATE (2010/2011) will be accepted from July 12 to October 8. It will cover Mathematics Education Key Learning Area, Moral and Civic Education and Special Education (Special Schools). For details, please also check the CEATE website.
Ends/Friday, July 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:21
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