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Annex D
Announced Initiatives to Promote IT in Education
A. Measures announced in early 1997
- Connecting all secondary schools to the Internet. Through the liaison between Government and Internet service providers, all secondary schools have been provided with free Internet accounts since the 1996/97 school year;
- Providing 15 computers for each primary school and training on use of IT for over 15Ê000 primary school teachers. The computers have been installed in schools starting from May 1998, and the installation will be completed by the end of 1998. As at October 1998, IT training has been provided for some 3 000 teachers;
- Introducing a Computer Awareness Programme in primary schools. The programme enables primary school pupils to acquire basic computer knowledge and operation skills, and to appreciate the proper use of computers. It consists of eight modules to be incorporated in the school curriculum and/or extra-curricular activities. Following a pilot scheme in eight primary schools, the programme will be implemented in all primary schools starting from the 1998/99 school year;
- Supporting computer-assisted learning programmes in primary schools. CD-ROM titles on languages, mathematics and other subjects are being provided to primary schools along with computers;
- Providing an annual recurrent grant of $14,000 for each primary school to purchase consumables, educational software packages and to pay for other charges, starting from the 1998/99 school year; and
- Establishing in each of the 46 prevocational and secondary technical schools an Information Technology Learning Centre (ITLC) and a computer laboratory in each of the 27 prevocational schools. These facilities are intended to support the new technical curriculum, which will be implemented from the 2000/01 school year. The ITLCs will be installed by April 1999 and the computer laboratories by the end of 1999.
The implementation of the measures above requires a capital cost of around $300 million and a recurrent cost of $28 million per year.
B. Measures announced by the Chief Executive in the 1997 Policy Address
- Enhancing provision of IT equipment for schools. On average a primary school will have 40 computers and a secondary school 82 computers. The additional equipment will be provided to schools from mid 1998 to mid 2000;
- Providing another 30'000 IT training places for teachers. Training will be provided at four levels over the next four years;
- Introducing an IT pilot scheme in 10 primary and 10 secondary schools to establish best practices for IT application in teaching and learning. 69 (22 primary and 47 secondary) schools applied to join the scheme from which 20 schools have been selected. The pilot scheme has commenced in the 1998/99 school year and will be reviewed in two years' time;
- Establishing an Information Technology Education Resource Centre (ITERC). The Centre has commenced operation in 1998. It provides professional support to teachers in the adoption of an IT-based teaching mode, and technical support to schools on a regional basis. It will have a software preview library, provide hotline service for teachers and schools, and support teachers in the development of educational software;
- Supporting procurement and development of educational software. This will be one of the major tasks of ITERC;
- Connecting all schools to the Internet. In addition to secondary schools which already have access to the Internet since the 1996/97 school year, primary schools will also have such access as soon as they get computers;
- Planning for an education-specific Intranet. We will commission a consultancy study on the feasibility of setting up an Intranet for multi-dimensional communication and sharing of information within the education sector. The consultancy study is expected to be completed by mid 1999;
- Increasing the annual recurrent grant to $69,000 or $76,000, depending on the size of the school, for schools to purchase consumables, educational software packages and to pay for other charges, such as Internet subscription fee, starting from the 1998/99 school year; and
- Establishing a multi-media learning centre in some 100 secondary schools to promote more extensive application of IT in teaching and learning across the curriculum in these schools. Priority have been given to those schools which use Chinese as the medium of instruction to support biliteracy and trilingualism through a better environment for the learning of the English language. We aim to establish the centre in the selected schools in the 1998/99 and 1999/2000 school years.
The implementation of the measures above requires an additional capital cost of about $2,580 million and additional recurrent cost of $233 million per year.
C. Measures announced by the Chief Executive in the 1998 Policy Address
- Providing another 35Ê000 IT training places for teachers in the next four years (see para. 4.3);
- providing an IT Co-ordinator per school for up to 120 schools from the 1999/2000 school year and up to 250 schools from the 2000/01 school year (see para. 4.15);
- providing technical assistance to all schools on a contract basis (see para. 4.13); and
- providing a grant for schools to make available their computers for use by students after the normal school opening hours (see para. 3.6).
The implementation of the measures above requires an additional capital cost of about $334 million and additional recurrent cost of $294.5 million per year.
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