Programme Highlights

The Government aims to raise the quality of primary school education:

	by implementing whole-day primary schooling The Government aims to enable all primary school students to enjoy whole-day schooling. Except a few schools, nearly all government and aided primary schools have been converted into whole-day operation or have had agreed plans for whole-day conversion.  The Government would adopt a pragmatic and flexible approach in working out with these few bi-sessional schools on an agreed whole-day conversion plan.  More details are available on the webpage of Major Initiatives - Whole-day Primary Schooling.
	by implementing small class teaching (SCT) in public sector primary schools The Chief Executive has announced in the 2007-08 Policy Address that the Government will, where circumstances permit, implement SCT in public sector schools by phases, starting from Primary 1 in the 2009/10 school year and extending progressively to cover Primary 1 to Primary 6 by the 2014/15 school year.  The Government has been pragmatic and flexible with the implementation, taking into account of practical circumstances as well as the wishes and needs of schools, parents and students. More details are available on the webpage of Small Class Teaching.
	by promoting the use of information technology (IT) in teaching and learning The Government launched the first and second IT in Education Strategies in 1998 and 2004 respectively, focusing on the enhancement of IT infrastructure and empowering learning and teaching with IT.   To meet the changing needs of schools, teachers and students as their capacity of using IT in learning and teaching develops, the third IT in education strategy was launched in 2008. The new strategy, entitled ¡§Right Technology at the Right Time for the Right Task¡¨, aims to reduce the burden on teachers in integrating IT into their core activities from lesson planning to assessment of students, continue to sharpen teachers' IT pedagogical skills, equip teachers with the skills to nurture students¡¦ information literacy, generate a favourable IT environment at the school level, and equip parents with the skills to guide their children to use IT to learn at home.   More details are available on the webpage of the IT in Education.
	by implementing curriculum reform in schools In line with the aims of education, the Curriculum Development Council had set out the directions and implementation strategies of the curriculum reform which was launched in 2001. By now, the reform is in the medium-term phase of development.  More details are available on the webpage of Curriculum Development.
	by enhancing the biliterate and trilingual abilities of students We have been implementing various measures by phases, these include -   ¡E extending the Chinese and English Extensive Reading Schemes gradually to cover Primary 1 to Secondary 5 since 1997; ¡E the Chinese and English Writing Packages were published and issued to schools in the 2000/01 s.y.; ¡E providing Native-speaking English Teachers to enhance the learning and teaching of English in public sector primary and secondary schools; ¡E providing additional teaching posts to all eligible aided primary ordinary schools since the 2001/02 s.y. to strengthen library services and to support the extension of Chinese and English Extensive Reading Schemes; ¡E upgrading a post to senior teacher rank in each public sector primary school with 6 or more classes to provide curriculum leadership in the teaching of English to improve coordination, planning and methodology; ¡E setting up a Language Corner in the Central Resources Centre established in 2006 to provide resources on the Chinese Language Education KLA and English Language Education KLA for teachers¡¦ reference; ¡E implementing the Putonghua curriculum as a core subject at both primary and secondary levels since the 1998/99 s.y..   To strengthen the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools and to support the wider use of Putonghua to teach the Chinese Language subject in primary and secondary schools, $1,100 million has been injected to the Language Fund.
	by improving the learning environment School premises completed in recent years, some 40% bigger than the standard designs of 1995 in terms of total floor areas, provide more facilities and open space to meet the latest requirements for effective learning and teaching.  Most of them are individually designed by architects in the market, taking into consideration their physical locations and the educational visions of the school sponsoring bodies.
	by providing education services for newly arrived children and young people from the Mainland We are closely monitoring the admission of children and young people from the Mainland to ensure that there are adequate school places and support services to cater for their educational needs. In parallel, we have been providing the following support services for children and young people from the Mainland to help them integrate into the local school system as soon as possible -   ¡E school placement assistance ¡E Induction Programme ¡E School-based Support Scheme ¡E Initiation Programme     More details are available on the webpage on Education and Support Services for Newly Arrived Children.