Education Reform
 

Annex II: Support for Schools Provided by the Education Department and Other Sectors

(1) School-based Support

  • The target of conducting school development visits to 50% of public-sector schools in the 2000/01 school year has been achieved. Through the visits, the REOs enhanced their partnership with schools and assisted them in assessing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

  • In the 2000/01 school year, the REOs provided school-based support to 136 public-sector schools, including assisting them in formulating and implementing improvement plans, providing advice on business process re-engineering, promoting the dissemination of good practices and arranging sharing sessions, participating in schools' staff development days and conducting school-based workshops.

  • In the 2000/01 school year, the REOs had met the target of organizing 54 networking activities for schools in 18 districts according to the schools' needs.

(2) Parent Education and Home-School Co-operation

  1. Compilation of parent education reference materials
    • The Parent Education Implementation Team produced the first 2 parent education pamphlets in November 2001. The preparation of other reference materials is underway.

  2. Promotion of parent education
    • The results of the fund allocation for the first round applications were announced in mid-November 2001. The total amount allocated was close to $1,500,000.

    • A series of parent education programmes in workplaces and housing estates were organized.

    • The Parent Education Implementation Team plans to organize training courses to train more parent educators.

  3. Home-School Co-operation Project Grants
    • In the 2001-02 financial year, about $9,700,000 was allocated to subsidize about 1,700 home-school co-operation projects organized by schools and parent-teacher associations.

  4. Launching of "New Century Learning Family Campaign"
    • The Campaign provided opportunities for around 8,000 families to put the concept of "Learning Family" into practice. The Campaign included the Family Volunteering Scheme, the Parent Peer Counselling Programme, training courses for parent-teacher association committee members, talks on parent-teacher associations and parent-child relationship as well as an "Exploration on Learning Family" symposium.

(3) Support by Other Sectors

Organization

Support Activities

Social Welfare Department
  • Organize regional youth services meetings and other related liaison activities.

  • Implement the "Understanding Adolescent Project" in secondary schools. In the 2001/02 school year, 150 secondary schools benefited. The project will be extended to 304 secondary schools in the 2002/03 school year.

Social Services Agencies
  • Provide school social workers, out-reaching social workers and integrated youth services.

  • Provide support services to schools (e.g. adaptation courses for New Arrival Children, tutorial and guidance services for students with learning differences and guidance services for students with behavioural problems).

  • Promote public concern for education development activities.

  • The Education Department commissioned the Breakthrough Limited and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to pilot the Understanding Adolescent Project in primary schools from 2001/02 to 2003/04 school years. The Project aims at developing an assessment tool, a series of preventive programmes and counselling services for Primary 4 to Primary 6 pupils to strengthen their resilience to meet challenges. The Project has been piloted in 18 schools in Tai Po and North districts. It will eventually be extended to 400 primary schools in the 2005/06 school year.

Hong Kong Police Force
  • Implement "Public Community Relations Officer Scheme", "School Ambassador Scheme", "One-school-one-policeman Scheme" and "Fight Crime Scheme".

  • In the "Enhanced School Liaison Programme" launched in September 2001, 33 additional School Liaison Officers paid regular visits to schools so as to strengthen collaboration.

Other Disciplinary Forces
  • The Student Discipline Section of the Education Department, in collaboration with the Police Training School, the Fire Services Training School and the Civil Aid Service, organized 48 Smart Teen Challenge Camps in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 financial years to develop students' self-discipline, confidence and resilience. The Project served around 3,400 Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students in the first two years and the number will be extended to 4,600 each year from the 2002-03 to 2003-04 financial years.

Leisure and Cultural Services Department
  • Provide schools with sports, leisure, cultural and recreational facilities for sports days and dance, music and drama activities.

  • "Culture Day" is earmarked to open up facilities for schools to promote cultural activities.

  • Provide library services to meet the information technology and learning needs of students.

  • The Physical Education Section of the Education Department and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department jointly organized the "School Sports Promotion Programme" to develop students' generic skills and promote the culture of life-long participation in sports. The programme was launched in April 2001. At the end of December 2001, a total of 232 secondary schools, 207 primary schools and 21 special schools participated in the programme. More than 3,000 activities have been organized.

Uniform Groups
  • A Steering Committee on Uniform Group Enhancement Scheme, chaired by the Director of Education, was set up. The Committee consists of representatives from various government departments, non-government organizations and major educational partners. The Scheme aims at developing students' skills in organization, communication, leadership and creativity and at the same time inculcating in them self-discipline, the spirit of co-operation and a sense of commitment to society. The 2000 Policy Address promulgated that an amount of $50 million would be earmarked to promote uniform group activities over the next three school years. The first batch of applications were approved in October 2001 with the number of participants estimated to be 10,000.

Business Enterprises
  • Provide schools with resources for purchasing equipment or setting up scholarships.

  • The Curriculum Development Institute of the Education Department is exploring how to provide career-related learning experiences to students. Discussions are being held with other sectors such as the Hong Kong Productivity Council and the Airport Authority to explore the feasibility of broadening opportunities for students to acquire different learning experiences.

 

Back to Table of Contents