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The Curriculum Development Institute today (August 25) began to distribute Team Clean's Report on Measures to Improve Environmental Hygiene in Hong Kong to secondary and primary schools and kindergartens to help them put the report's recommendations into practice.
"We are supportive of the recommendations that will help schools achieve more effectively the cultivation of a sense of responsibility and healthy lifestyle among students, two of the learning objectives set out by the Curriculum Development Council," a spokesman for the Education and Manpower Bureau said. "The bureau will strengthen civic and health education and provide teachers with relevant resources and professional development programmes to enhance their teaching effectiveness in this respect.
"From next month, we will include the concept of Health Promoting Schools in the training programmes for new teachers. In the new school year, we will also incorporate the theme of civic responsibility and its relationship with personal and environmental hygiene into the moral and civic education training programmes for school heads and teachers." This will enhance their ability to develop students' critical-thinking skills and power of moral judgment with regard to personal and social issues.
The bureau now requires all schools to include action plans for civic and health education in their annual School Development Plans. It will conduct inspections at a sample of schools and identify areas for improvement.
In addition, a column dedicated to atypical pneumonia has been created on the bureau's website (www.emb.gov.hk) and will be updated regularly to provide teachers with resources to promote students' awareness of the importance of personal and environmental hygiene. A student website will also be launched next month to encourage students to post comments and suggestions on improving environmental hygiene in schools and neighbourhoods, and to upload pictures of hygiene black spots identified in the community.
To further sustain students' impetus to realise the mission of "Live Hygiene, Live Health", a Pledge Day will be held on September 5. Teachers and students at participating schools will commit to leading a healthy lifestyle. Students' social morality will be cultivated through their participation in building a clean campus.
The report carries the most current material for civic and health education, such as recommendations on measures to improve home hygiene (Chapter 3) and community hygiene (Chapter 4).
It will also help schools develop plans to promote civic and health education on campus and hold reviews and discussions regarding their progress.
The report is available on the Team Clean website, www.teamclean.gov.hk/eng/report.htm.
"The bureau will maintain good communication with schools to carry out the relevant recommendations. Collaborative efforts will be made to build a better Hong Kong and keep up its image as an international city," the spokesman said.
End/Monday, August 25, 2003
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