Are the educational measures implemented by the new Government sufficient to cater to the public demand?
Policy Address |
Comments |
We will strengthen our support for students with special educational needs. Starting from the 2013-14 school year, the EDB will raise the ceiling of the annual Learning Support Grant from $1 million to $1.5 million per school to strengthen support for schools. |
Only 28 out of 680 publicly-funded schools are eligible for the grant. |
To provide an opportunity for ethnic minority students to learn Chinese more effectively, we will enhance support measures in schools. |
No tailor-made curriculum and examination of the subject of Chinese Language for the ethnic minority students were introduced. |
In the sector of Secondary schools, a series of measures to help preserve our schools, the teaching force and the strengths of our education sector will be implemented. |
No timeline has been made for the introduction of small-class teaching in the secondary schools. |
Budget |
Comments |
An additional $480 million be injected into the HKSAR Government Scholarship Fund (GSF) to set up scholarships for outstanding local students to take degree courses or teacher training programmes in prestigious universities outside Hong Kong. Awardees must undertake to teach in Hong Kong upon graduation for at least two years. |
No substantial solution for facilitating new teachers to be recruited. |
$5 billion be injected into the Language Fund. |
Two English language schemes under the Language Fund to provide schools with supporting staff have been cancelled. |
In January, the first Policy Address and Budget announced by the Chief Executive were very much disappointing the education sector. We had believed that what Leung promised to do for the education sector in his policy platform would bring a new hope to the stagnant educational policies carried out by our sunset government. However, Leung just played a tactics of procrastination after he took office. We have not seen any new long-term planning on primary, secondary or special education. Even the new fundings were only one-off, or did not meet the social need.
A survey conducted in July of this year concerning teachers’ views towards the educational policies of Leung Government showed that 65% of secondary school teachers were dissatisfied with the policies, which was the highest among all sectors. This is a clear warning to the Government. Fung Wai-wah, our President and Ip Kin-yuen, the lawmaker of our field, talked with Chief Executive, Chief Secretary for Administration, and Financial Secretary last month about our comments towards the coming Budget and Policy Address. We urged the Government not to turn a deaf ear to our voices, and the most essential is to strengthen the investment in our field. …… 閱讀全文 →