The following is issued on behalf of the Education Commission:

The Education Commission (EC) discussed the progress of the public consultation on the proposals for education reform at its meeting held today (June 3).

The public has so far responded actively to the various reform proposals, in particular proposals relating to primary one admission and secondary school places allocation (SSPA). With regard to the proposed SSPA system, there are strong requests from parents for an early announcement before the end of the current school year on the arrangement for the 2000/01 school year.

The Chairman of the EC, Mr Antony Leung, said: "To cater to the requests of these parents, we urge the public to send their views to the EC before June 30 on whether the Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) should be abolished and the transitional mechanism for SSPA, i.e. determining the allocation bands on the basis of schools' internal results scaled by the average of the schools' AAT results over the past three years, should commence in the 2000/01 school year."

"After considering all the views received before the end of June, we will submit our recommendation on the SSPA mechanism for the 2000/01 school year to the Government as soon as possible so that the Government may announce before the end of the current school year the SSPA arrangement for 2000/01," he said.

After June 30, the EC will continue to consult the public on the proposed transitional mechanism's duration and the long term SSPA mechanism, as well as other proposals for education reform. After the completion of the consultation by July 31, we will consider all the views received before we finalise our recommendations for submission to the Government.

At its meeting today, the EC also discussed the progress made by the Government in implementing the proposal on setting benchmark for language teachers contained in the Education Commission Report No. 6.

"We note that the Government has recently announced the arrangements for benchmarking the language proficiency of English and Putonghua teachers and that teachers have been provided with different channels, including attending training courses or taking examination, to attain the benchmarks. At the same time, the Government is actively considering the exemption issue.

"We also note that the public has expressed different views on the announced arrangements. We consider that in an ever changing and progressing society, teachers must continue to enhance their professional standard so as to meet the ever changing requirements of the education profession. We agree that we should let serving teachers choose how to attain the benchmarks," Mr Leung said.

The EC welcomed the decision of the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications to set up as soon as possible a working group to consider in collaboration with the relevant educational bodies the detailed arrangements concerning the training courses. Moreover, the EC urged the school principals to make reasonable arrangements so as to facilitate teachers in attending training courses.

The EC Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of the General Teaching Council (GTC) is actively considering the detailed arrangements concerning the establishment of the GTC. One of the major tasks of the GTC is to establish a professional development ladder for teachers with a view to enhancing their professionalism and status.

The EC encouraged the community, including the education sector, to provide more views on the proposals for education reform.

Ends/Saturday, June 3, 2000