The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, today stressed that education is the key of Hong Kong's future and that the Government will further upgrade education and train up local teachers through injection of large resources.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Tai Po campus of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIE), Mr Tung said that the total expenditure on education for the year 1998/99 would be increased to $53.2 billion, which was 18.4 per cent of the total public expenditure, and constituted the greatest share of our public spending.

"The real growth in expenditure, excluding the allocation of $5 billion for the setting up of the Quality Education Development Fund, amounts to 12.7 per cent. On the basis of basic education, the real growth is as high as 16.4 per cent," he said.

The new campus of the HKIE was built at the cost of over $2.5 billion and its teaching facilities are of international standards. Mr Tung said that the opening of the Institute's new campus added a new page to teacher education in Hong Kong.

He said : "As pillars of our education system, teachers are commissioned with the important task of providing education to our children. After our reunion with China, Hong Kong is now marching towards the 21st Century. We have great expectations of the younger generation, especially our young teachers.

"We hope that they are able to achieve the following goals:

* To be a person with all-rounded development in ethics,

intellect, physique, social skills and aesthetics;

* To be a person who has deep love of our mother country

and is committed to the development of the mainland as

well as Hong Kong;

* To be biliterate and trilingual;

* To be a person with immense and extensive knowledge,

independent thinking, creativity and enthusiasm; and

* To be a teacher who is caring and eager to serve our

community and a person with lofty ideal and high moral

standards, who is ready to shoulder the onus in the

education of our younger generation."

Mr Tung said that to ensure the quality of teachers in Hong Kong's schools, the Policy Address had set out the goal of raising the professional status of teachers.

"All new teachers will be required to be trained graduates. The date for graduate posts making up 35 per cent of all primary teaching posts will be advanced from 2007 to 2001. It is also hoped that the schedule for the fulfilment of the requirement that all new teachers should be trained graduates could be announced as soon as possible," he said.

"The HKIE will therefore have a new mission to accomplish and a more important role to play in tertiary education. In the coming academic year, the Institute will organise undergraduate and part-time taught postgraduate programmes to promote the continuing and professional development of teachers. These programmes will certainly help to achieve our goal of raising the professional status of our teachers so as to meet the changing expectations of the community and to upgrade the overall quality of our education," he added.

Mr Tung noted that the Institute was taking active action in setting up a "Centre of Language Teaching".

He said: "We aim at providing all pre-service and in-service teachers with quality language training through an advanced and well-organised language-teaching training centre.

"The Institute is also drawing up plans for running a new school to put teaching theories into practice. Students in Tai Po will definitely benefit from the service rendered by this new school."

Mr Tung said that it was encouraging to note that the Institute had made remarkable progress since its inception in 1994, through the merger of former Colleges of Education and the Institute of Language in Education.

"The Institute's Research and Development Centre set up in 1996 promotes academic researches. Besides, the Institute also takes active part in joint projects with local, mainland and overseas institutes of tertiary education to encourage academic exchanges.

"Through such cooperation and contact, local, mainland and overseas institutes of tertiary education are encouraged to share with each other their valuable experience in education."

"Undoubtedly, the HKIE has already laid a firm foundation for our future. I strongly believe that the Institute is able to fulfil its tasks and earn the acclaim as a centre of excellence for teacher education and continuing and professional education in Hong Kong as well as the Asia-Pacific Region," he added.