SED on class resumption and complaints against teachers
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Reporter: When will the Government have a concrete plan as to when school will resume? You mentioned by the end of March. So what will be the criteria? And for the second question, how would you respond to the accusation that the EDB (Education Bureau) is "operating in a black box" concerning the complaints against teachers? Thank you.
Secretary for Education: At this stage, we are still observing the development of the epidemic, both in Hong Kong and also in overseas places, and we aim to form a view by the end of March on whether April 20 is possible for class resumption. In doing so, as I have said, we have to observe the development of the epidemic, we have to check with the schools to see whether they are prepared to do that, and also we have to assess the adequacy of suitable prevention materials, including masks.
On your second question, as I explained in the (LegCo) Chamber, when we deal with the complaints against teachers, we are adopting a very fair and open mechanism in dealing with them. Of course, we could not disclose every single case to everyone, because there are privacy considerations, and in the course of investigation sometimes we need time to gather all the facts. But I think we have an open mechanism, so all teachers know which stage we are up to, and they have a chance to do their own representation. And if they are not happy with our decision, they can always appeal to us.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Issued at HKT 14:45
Issued at HKT 14:45
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