Since October 2000, the Government has progressively implemented
various reform measures according to the timetable as promulgated
in the Education Reform. In its "Progress
Report on the Education Reform (1)" issued in January 2002,
the EC reported to the public the first year's reform progress.
The progress made in the various areas in the past one and a half
year is summarised in the following table.
| Stage of education |
Measures planned
to be implemented from the 2001/02 school year onwards |
Progress |
| Early Childhood
Education |
| 2001/02 school year |
| - |
To recommend the monitoring
structure, subsidy mode and teacher training of Kindergartens
(KGs) and Child Care Centres (CCC)s |
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To implement the quality assurance mechanism
in Kindergartens. |
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Recommendations on the
harmonisation of pre-primary services have been finalised.
These include: |
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- Monitoring Structure - the Education and Manpower
Bureau (EMB) and Social Welfare Department will set
up a Joint Office to monitor KG-cum-CCCs
- Subsidy Mode - the Kindergarten Fee Remission Scheme
and the Kindergarten Subsidy Scheme will be expanded
to cover CCCs.
- Teacher Training - to attain the target of a fully-trained
pre-primary workforce by the 2004/05 school year.
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Quality assurance inspections allow a thorough and
holistic review of kindergartens in the aspects of management
and organisation, learning and teaching, support to
children and school culture.
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To enhance transparency, quality
assurance reports are uploaded onto the EMB homepage for
public information. |
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A web-based data bank has been
set up to promote the good practices on "learning
and teaching" as well as the experiences of "school
self-evaluation". |
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| 2002/03 school year |
| - |
To require all new kindergarten principals
to have completed the Certificate in Early Childhood Education
Course. |
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To promote school self-evaluation through
external evaluation |
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From 2003/04 school year onwards, to have
all new kindergartens teachers completed one-year pre-service
qualified kindergarten teacher (QKT) training. (Degree
holders may be exempted on condition that they must complete
QKT training within the first two years of their service.) |
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To produce performance indicators for "Child
Development" to facilitate pre-primary institutions
to conduct a thorough school self-evaluation. |
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Implemented as scheduled. |
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Focus inspections were conducted on 90 kindergartens.
The aim of the inspections is to urge more kindergartens
to be actively involved in self-improvement and conduct
self-evaluation systematically. |
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A total of 730 one-year full-time pre-service early
childhood education training places have been provided
from the 2000/01 to 2002/03 school year.
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The professional training requirement for
new kindergarten teachers will be enforced with effect
from 1 September 2003. |
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Expected to be issued in 2003. |
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| School Education |
| From 2001/02 school year |
| - |
Primary and secondary schools to decide
whether they will adopt the "through-train"
mode. |
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Detailed arrangements for implementing the "through-train"
mode were announced in the 2001/02 school year.
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To date, there are six
pairs of primary and secondary schools adopting the "through-train"
mode. |
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In the 2003/04 school
year, five additional pairs of subsidised schools will
adopt the "through-train" mode. |
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| Higher Education |
| From 2001/02 school year onwards |
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To reform the admission criteria progressively
to encourage all-round development of students |
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To reform the curriculum progressively to
cater for the needs of society and to enhance students'
quality. |
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To promote the development of community
colleges and to increase the participation rate of post-secondary
education. |
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The universities have gradually adopted
more diversified admission criteria to enable a more comprehensive
assessment of students' performance. |
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Being implemented by the universities. |
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To provide assistance to students and providers
to promote the development of full-time accredited self-financing
post-secondary courses. |
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The relevant age cohort receiving post-secondary
education has increased to 42%. |
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| Continuing Education |
| From 2002/03 school year onwards |
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To implement the qualifications framework
and its associated quality assurance mechanism progressively
to promote the development of continuing education. |
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Have consulted the public on the establishment
of a qualifications framework and quality assurance mechanism.
The EMB, the Manpower Development Committee and the community
would study the implementation details. |
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