​Following is a question by the Hon Ken Wong and a reply by the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question:

     In recent years, the Government has actively promoted digital education with a view to fostering educational innovation. Nevertheless, there are views pointing out that considerable disparities currently exist among Hong Kong schools in promoting digital education, and that frontline teachers' confidence and capabilities in utilising digital technology in teaching also vary. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the number of training courses relating to digital education organised by the authorities for in-service teachers in the past academic year; whether the effectiveness of such courses in enhancing teachers' ability to apply digital technology in the classroom has been evaluated; if so, of the evaluation mechanism and the results thereof; if not, the reasons for that;

(2) whether it has plans to include artificial intelligence (AI) as a compulsory domain in teachers' continuing professional development, and to incorporate competence in digital education as a prerequisite for teachers' professional development and promotion; if so, of the details and implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3) whether it will expand the Digital Education Centre of Excellence Scheme to encourage teacher teams with successful experience to provide on-site support to other schools, so as to assist frontline teachers in integrating AI into teaching and learning; if so, of the details; if not, what alternative measures are in place to promote inter-school sharing of experience and resources?

Reply:

President,

     To align with the national strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, the Education Bureau (EDB) has implemented various measures in primary and secondary schools to promote digital education, support teaching innovation and nuture innovative talent. The competence of teachers is key to the effective implementation of digital education.

     ​The reply to the question raised by the Hon Ken Wong is as follows:

(1) To equip teachers to embrace the opportunities and challenges brought by digital education, the EDB adopts a diversified training approach, emphasising both quality and quantity, to continuously advance teacher professional development. Across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 school year, over 70 000 training places will be provided, ensuring that all teachers in publicly-funded schools in Hong Kong have the opportunity to participate in training, thereby establishing a solid professional foundation for the implementation of digital education.
          
     In the 2024/25 school year, the EDB has rolled out a series of teacher professional development activities, including organising over 430 digital education professional development programmes for teachers, offering more than 35 000 training places. The EDB has also organised a featured programme, "AI Unleashed - Exploring the Depths for Educators", providing 940 training places, enabling teachers to deepen their understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its applications and broaden their horizons through thematic talks and a study tour to the Greater Bay Area. The curriculum leadership seminar organised by the EDB themed effective use of AI to promote curriculum developments in primary schools also attracted participation from over 120 primary schools with nearly 350 principals and teachers, fostering inter-school experience exchange and collaboration.
          
     In addition, the Digital Education Centre of Excellence (CoE) established by the EDB promotes digital education through seminars and on-site support. The CoE organises in-service teachers to share their practices of digital education and explore the application of AI in teaching, thereby promoting peer learning. In the past year, the CoE offered over 200 training programmes for teachers with more than 14 000 training places, and nearly 140 times of on-site support services. Meanwhile, teaching demonstrations and lesson observation activities were also conducted on the campuses to share good practices in teaching. The support services of the CoE have covered more than 90 per cent of the publicly-funded primary and secondary schools, and the participating schools generally agree that the services meet their needs and help enhance teaching effectiveness.
         
     Regarding the effectiveness of teacher training, in addition to conducting post-training surveys upon completion of training programmes, the EDB also provides on-site support services and organises lesson observation activities to evaluate the implementation. The EDB also invited all primary and secondary schools across the territory to take part in the Survey on Digital Education for the 2024/25 school year, with a response rate of nearly 92 per cent. The survey findings revealed that over 95 per cent of the teachers showed confidence in using e-tools to enhance teaching effectiveness; were able to grasp the essence of using e-tools to improve teaching effectiveness; and were able to make use of various e-tools to help students, inter alia, unleash their creativity and solve daily problems with technology. These findings are consistent with the usual training data, which indicate that teachers have built a good foundation in applying digital tools in teaching.

(2) With technology advancing at an unprecedented pace and societal expectations for teachers constantly rising, teachers must keep abreast of the times. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is key to the quality assurance of teaching. To this end, the EDB has established a professional development training framework for teachers, requiring all in-service teachers to complete 150 hours of CPD every three years. Within each three-year cycle, a minimum of 30 hours must be allocated to two categories of core training, namely "Teachers' Professional Roles, Values and Conduct" and "Local, National and International Education Issues", with not less than six hours spent on each category. The training framework allows teachers to utilise their training hours with openness and flexibility to participate in various activities or programmes that align with the needs of schools, students and their own professional development. AI and digital education fall under the category of "Local, National and International Education Issues". Currently, schools can devise school-based CPD plans according to their specific school context to facilitate teachers in fulfilling the training requirements.
         
     Regarding the promotion criteria for teachers in aided schools, in addition to meeting the qualification requirements stipulated in the Codes of Aid, teachers must also complete the specified promotion training programmes within five years prior to their date of substantive promotion. The core training is provided by the EDB, and currently includes content on digital education. The elective training allows teachers to undertake relevant training based on the professional expertise required for the respective promotion posts. Given the varying contexts of different schools and the different professional duties of promotion posts, we do not recommend setting uniform and rigid criteria.

(3) Moving forward, the EDB will further expand the support services of the CoE and organise more seconded teachers to provide support in other schools. The number of resource schools has increased from 13 in the previous school year (2024/25) to 18, the number of seconded teachers has expanded from 26 to 34, and the number of support service items has increased from 16 to 23. In addition to focusing on areas such as promoting information literacy, e-assessment, using information technology to support students with special educational needs, and blended mode of learning, the support will also incorporate more AI elements, for example, how to plan the application of AI in teaching, AI in pedagogical and curriculum design, as well as AI and educational ethics.

     The EDB will also implement various measures to encourage inter-school experience exchange and resource sharing. These include strengthening school-based professional support services, and supporting schools in integrating digital education tools into different Key Learning Areas/subjects. In addition, the Mainland-Hong Kong Teachers Exchange and Collaboration Programme will also facilitate cross-regional experience sharing and observation, thereby enhancing teachers' professional competence.

     In addition, we will be launching progressively a new series of AI professional development programmes, which cover the core AI literacy areas required by school leaders and teachers, including "AI Literacy courses", "AI+Subjects courses", and "AI Leadership courses". This will enable teachers to participate in relevant training according to their needs of teaching and job positions.
         
     In fact, given the varying school circumstances, the extent and pace of implementing digital education differ among schools. In addition to providing teacher training with emphasis on both quality and quantity, the EDB also encourages diverse school-based practices and promotes experience exchange and resource sharing through various school-based support and inter-school sharing activities to accelerate the pace of development of digital education.
          
     In summary, building on existing strengths and foundations, the EDB will continue to optimise teacher professional training and school-based support services through a multi-pronged approach. We will also keep pace with the latest development of digital education, timely review the effectiveness and adjust strategies, to equip schools and teachers with the capacity to apply innovative technology to assist teaching, thereby fostering pedagogical innovation and enhancing learning effectiveness.

     Thank you, President. 

Ends/Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Issued at HKT 17:30

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