****************************
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, at a media session after officiating at the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme award presentation ceremony today (August 21):
Reporter: The Professional Teachers' Union has issued a letter calling for the Education Bureau's attention after the discovery of the lead contaminated water sample in one of the schools. So what follow-up actions will the bureau take prior to the new school year beginning?
Secretary for Education: As I said in my first statement, we take a lot of care in terms of the healthy and quality water supply for our students and citizens. The important thing is we are aware of the problem. That is why a joint task force has been established embracing a lot of different expertise addressing the subject. At this point of time, we are trying to, one of the focuses of the task force is to focus on the reasons for such a problem popping up. Another focus is, particularly for certain public estates, we are focusing on in terms of testing and retesting (water samples) and so on. These are the priority works that we are doing right now. For the school sector, we will continue liaising with the schools, continue working together and co-ordinating with the schools. For individual schools, at this point of time, most of them are still in the summer holidays period. As an example of this particular primary school, they have already started addressing the subject, addressing both the staff and parents' areas and so on. They have already taken quite a number of measures before the school year starts.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, August 21, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:55
NNNN
