The following is issued on behalf of the Education Commission:

The Education Commission (EC) has so far received over 2,500 written submissions during the second round of public consultation on the review of local education system.

The EC Chairman, Mr Antony Leung, told the media at a press conference today (Wednesday).

He said: "I am pleased to note that people from all walks of the community have actively participated in the consultation by providing the EC with their valuable comments and suggestions. The respondents include students, teachers, school principals, parents, social services groups, the business and other sectors of the community.

"The consultation exercise was conducted from September 22 to December 15, 1999. During the period, the EC, the Education Department and the Curriculum Development Institute organised a total of 34 forums and seminars to listen to the views of the public on the proposed framework for education reform. Attendance at these events altogether exceeded 10,000.

"Besides, members of the EC and I attended over 100 consultation sessions organised by various sectors of the community on their own initiative and exchanged views with them on the proposed framework."

Mr Leung said: "Most of the views received support the concept of lifelong learning and continuous self-enhancement. Many respondents are of the view that there is an urgent need for education reform to enable each individual to have all-round developments according to his/her characteristics, with the knowledge, abilities and aptitudes for lifelong learning to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

"The public views covered many areas of reform, from early childhood education to continuing education. The public generally support enhancing the professional standard of teachers in early childhood education. The public also agree that early childhood education should put emphasis on cultivating the children's positive attitudes, interest for learning, and good living habits. They support reinforcing administrative regulation to ensure that young children are not forced to learn things which are too advanced for their developmental stage."

"Most of the respondents support the abolition of the Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) in Primary 6, but there are different views on what replacement mechanism should be adopted.

"Quite a number of respondents suggested that AAT should be replaced by a curriculum-related test on English, Chinese and Mathematics. Some respondents are concerned that without public assessment, students will lack motivation to study hard. However, some respondents hold the view that students' motivation and interest in learning should better be stimulated through curriculum reform and improvement in teaching methods," he added.

On the proposal to eliminate the banding system, Mr Leung said: "More respondents express support than otherwise, but some feel that it is only fair that students with higher academic performance should have higher priorities in choosing their secondary schools. Some schools also worry about the difficulty in handling students with a greater mix of abilities.

"Some parents are concerned that if high academic achievers have to learn together with low achievers, the levels of the former will drop. However, this in fact hinges on whether the teachers can handle students with different abilities. Therefore, in the third stage of the review, the EC will work with other relevant advisory and executive bodies to consider what complementary measures have to be put in place to provide the most appropriate support for the schools and teachers."

Mr Leung said: "Quite a number of the respondents support reforming the primary one admission system. They feel that some of the elements in the present point system are unfair. Besides, with the implementation of the 'through-road' concept, there is an even more pressing need for reforming the system in order to reduce the pressure on parents and students.

"The public views generally support introducing the core competency test to help identify students' strengths and weaknesses so that appropriate assistance can be provided to the students early. The majority of the respondents also support reform of the school curriculum based on life-wide learning so as to provide students with a comprehensive learning experience.

"In senior secondary education, there are mixed views on the proposal to merge the senior secondary and sixth-form level education and to adopt only one public examination at the end of senior secondary education. Those who support the proposal feel that it would enhance the coherence of the curriculum, save students' time spent in preparing for public examinations, and reinforce life-wide learning. Those against the proposal argue that having only one public examination will put even more pressure on the students. Furthermore, not all students have enough ability to cope with the sixth-form curriculum."

Mr Leung continued: "Many respondents agree that there should not be streaming between the domains of natural science and humanities too early in senior secondary education. They feel that students should be given the opportunity to develop their interests in different areas. On the other hand, some respondents hold the view that students should not be rigidly required to study subjects in both domains at the same time but should be allowed to choose according to their interests and abilities.

"On whether there should continue to be the distinction between mainstream and vocational schools in senior secondary education, some respondents consider that there will be no such need if the senior secondary curriculum can be diversified to cater for the needs of students with different interests and abilities. On the other hand, some respondents are of the view that vocational schools are more suitable for those students who are not interested in academic study.

"The public generally support the reform of the university admission system. They feel that besides public examination results, university admission should take into consideration students' school results, evaluations by their teachers and performance in non-academic areas. They also support the implementation of a comprehensive transferable credit unit system, but point out that there are practical problems that need to be solved.

"The public generally support broadening the first-degree students' knowledge base, but have different views on the balance between the degree of generalization vs specialisation. Some respondents consider that first-degree programmes should be more general, with emphasis on cultivating students' generic skills. However, others feel that first degree programmes should maintain a certain degree of specialisation in order to develop specialists in different domains to cater for the need of the community."

On whether the establishment of post-secondary colleges should be encouraged, Mr Leung pointed out that the EC had received many different views. Some respondents supported a diversified higher education system as it could provide more opportunities and choices for students to pursue higher education. On the other hand, some were of the view that rather than establishing more new post-secondary colleges, the facilities of existing institutions should be fully utilized.

Mr Leung said: "About the continuing education, the public generally support establishing a comprehensive qualifications recognition mechanism. They also provide many valuable suggestions on how to promote lifelong learning, including establishing a database and resource centre for continuing education, how to make more effective use of the community's resources to enhance facilities for continuing education and encouraging the use of Internet."

Mr Leung thanked the public for their views. He said: "The EC Secretariat is now collating the views received and will upload them to the EC website for public reference.

"From the views collected, we realise that the public have high expectations of the reform. Many of them would like to know more details about the reform proposals and the implementation timetable, which will be the task of the EC in the next stage.

"In the next stage of the review, the EC will, on the basis of the public views collected, set priorities for the various reform agenda items and draw up concrete proposals and implementation timetable for individual items."

At the press conference, Mr Leung also briefly mentioned how EC would work closely with other major education-related advisory and executive bodies on the review.

"The EC will consult the public on specific proposals for reform in the third stage of the review. The whole review is expected to be completed in 2000," he said.

Ends/Wednesday, December 22, 1999