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A total of 100 applications involving 232 schools were received for the Pilot Scheme on e-Learning in Schools by the October 22 closing date, a spokesman for the Education Bureau (EDB) said today (October 26).
The applications came from the primary, secondary and special school sectors. About 43% of them involved school clusters, highlighting collaborations among schools in the Pilot Scheme, the spokesman added.
"Partnership with other sectors was diversified. The school applicants would be working with partners such as tertiary institutions, the information technology sector, educational publishers, content providers, and non-Government organisations, etc., to develop commercially viable business models for e-Learning resources to meet the needs of schools, teachers and students.
"The Key Learning Areas of the school curriculum were fully covered with the primary school projects spanning the Chinese and English Languages, Mathematics and General Studies while the secondary schools tended to focus on the English Language and the development of Liberal Studies," the spokesman said.
Some school applicants had also secured additional resources to enhance the implementation of the pilot scheme.
The Under Secretary for Education, Mr Kenneth Chen, said, "I am impressed by the enthusiasm of the local school community on the implementation of e-Learning and their commitment to developing school-based e-Learning resources.
"The successful school applicants will, over the coming three years of the pilot scheme, position themselves as research and development centres to develop and validate when and how e-Learning works best, to bring about effective interactive learning, to cater for learner diversity and to facilitate the charting of the way forward for wider adoption of e-Learning in schools."
The Pilot Scheme is one of the measures recommended by the Working Group on Textbooks and e-Learning Resources Development to promote e-Learning in schools, as revealed in a report released in October last year.
The Government has allocated $68 million to the three-year pilot scheme, of which $57 million is to be disbursed to about 20-30 pilot projects to support their implementation. The remaining funds will be used for backend support and for engaging in research to further develop the large-scale implementation of e-Learning in schools.
Schools were invited to submit their e-Learning proposals to EDB between April 29 and October 22. The results of their applications are expected to be announced in December 2010. The pilot schools should implement their e-Learning proposals at the student level not later than September 2011.
Ends/Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Issued at HKT 18:15
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