Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education to be implemented in 2015/16 school year (with photos)
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     The Education Bureau will launch the Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education (ITE4) in the 2015/16 school year, the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, said today (August 25) at the Kick-off Ceremony of IT in Education Centre of Excellence (CoE) 2015/16.

     Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Ng said, "ITE4 has far-reaching implications for unleashing the potential of student learning with the proper use of information technology (IT) and transforming human resources in Hong Kong to cope with the challenges of a knowledge-based society and economy. This will in turn empower them to develop whole-person development and life-long learning capability.

     "By inspiring more students to join innovative and technology industries, Hong Kong, under the 'One Belt, One Road' strategy of our country, could strengthen Hong Kong's competitiveness and reinforce its position in Asia and even in the international arena by providing new industries and high-end services to economies along the routes."

     On the public consultation on ITE4 conducted last year, Mr Ng said, "There is general consensus that ITE4 will enable students to develop self-directed learning; enhance their problem-solving, collaboration and computational thinking skills; encourage their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; and nurture them as ethical IT users so as to achieve the goal of pursuing whole-person development and life-long learning.

     "In view of the feedback and suggestions received, we have added Action 6 on top of the five actions proposed under the consultation - striving to sustain the development and outcomes of ITE through research and development to consolidate knowledge and experiences as well as to enhance support measures whenever appropriate.

     "The CoE schools which receive their certificates today will play an important role in this regard. The EDB will strengthen co-operation with them to provide district-based and subject-based on-site support services to schools. The CoE schools will also be tasked to build learning communities for scaling up good practices as well to continue to consolidate new experiences and enhance teachers' repertoire and experiences on IT teaching, aiming at equipping students with the necessary knowledge to face various challenges in the digital era."

     The CoE scheme was established in the 2000/01 cohort, with front-line teachers with IT teaching experience being seconded to the EDB to provide on-site support to other schools.

     "To tie in with the implementation of ITE4, the number of CoE schools will increase by 70 per cent from 12 to 20 (the list of CoE schools is in the Annex). The number of on-site visits to schools by CoE teachers will have a two-fold increase to 450 in the 2015/16 school year, and about 270 professional training courses will be arranged to meet the enormous needs for the implementation of e-learning at schools," Mr Ng said.

     Other officiating guests at today's ceremony included the Permanent Secretary for Education, Mrs Marion Lai, and the Deputy Secretary for Education, Dr Catherine Chan.

     The aim of ITE4 is to unleash students' learning power through a series of actions, including the enhancement of Wi-Fi access in all classrooms of the public sector schools in Hong Kong in phases. Starting from the 2014/15 school year, the EDB has provided 100 schools with enhanced Wi-Fi access under the Support Scheme for e-Learning in Schools. More than 400 schools will join the scheme in the 2015/16 school year as scheduled. It is expected that all schools would complete the enhancement of their Wi-Fi infrastructure three years later.  

     Other actions under ITE4 include enriching the quality of e-learning resources, developing new pedagogies by using digital technologies and building up the professional capacity of school leaders and teachers as well as involving parents and leveraging community resources.

     All the actions are detailed in the Report on ITE4, which is available on the website (www.edb.gov.hk/ited/ite4).

Ends/Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Issued at HKT 11:57

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