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Following is a question by the Hon Szeto Wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Professor Arthur K C Li, in the Legislative Council today (June 23):

Question :

Under the existing policy, the Education and Manpower Bureau offers additional teacher posts to those secondary schools which admit Primary Six students with academic scores in the lowest 10 percentiles. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the following for each of the past three and the next school years-

(a) the respective numbers of Primary Six students with such academic scores the secondary schools to which they have been admitted and the additional teacher posts offered by the Bureau to the schools concerned;

(b) the number of secondary schools which have reduced the intake of such students, resulting in the corresponding deletion of additional teacher posts offered by the Bureau, as well as the number of teachers affected?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) Under the existing policy, secondary schools are provided with additional teachers under the School-based Remedial Support Programme (SBRSP) for admitting 75 or more Primary Six students with academic scores in the lowest 10 percentiles in the previous three years. Details are set out in Annex I.

(b) The number of additional teachers in individual schools has to be increased or reduced according to the number of bottom 10 per cent junior secondary school students admitted. Related figures are set out in Annex II.

Ends/Wednesday, June 23, 2004

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