Programme Highlights on Secondary Education

• by implementing the New Senior Secondary (NSS) academic structure and curriculum

“The New Academic Structure for Senior Secondary Education and Higher Education – Action Plan for Investing in the Future of Hong Kong” published in May 2005 has made a range of recommendations on changing the academic structure of Hong Kong in senior secondary and higher education.  Starting from 2009, ALL students will be given the opportunity to study three years of senior secondary education on top of the nine years basic education.  There will only be one public examination leading to the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education under the new academic structure.  One public examination less will help create more space and time for students to enrich their learning experience and contribute to enhance the learning effectiveness.  The diversified NSS curriculum also allows students with different aptitudes, needs and abilities to reach their full potential.  More details are available on the New Academic Structure Web Bulletin.

• by fine-tuning the medium of instruction arrangements for secondary schools

The fine-tuned Medium of Instruction arrangements aim to give flexibility to schools to provide students with more opportunities to be exposed to, and to use, English at junior secondary levels to enhance students’ ability to learn in English.  More details are available on the webpage of the Medium of Instruction.

• by promoting the use of information technology (IT) in teaching and learning

The Government launched the first and second IT in Education Strategies in 1998 and 2004 respectively, focusing on the enhancement of IT infrastructure and empowering learning and teaching with IT.

To meet the changing needs of schools, teachers and students as their capacity of using IT in learning and teaching develops, the third IT in education strategy was launched in 2008. The new strategy, entitled “Right Technology at the Right Time for the Right Task”, aims to reduce the burden on teachers in integrating IT into their core activities from lesson planning to assessment of students, continue to sharpen teachers' IT pedagogical skills, equip teachers with the skills to nurture students’ information literacy, generate a favourable IT environment at the school level, and equip parents with the skills to guide their children to use IT to learn at home.

More details are available on the webpage of the IT in Education.

• by enhancing the biliterate and trilingual abilities of students

We have been implementing various measures by phases, these include -

‧extending the Chinese and English Extensive Reading Schemes gradually to cover Primary 1 to Secondary 5 since 1997;

‧the Chinese and English Writing Packages were published and issued to schools in the 2000/01 s.y.;

‧providing Native-speaking English Teachers to enhance the learning and teaching of English in public sector primary and secondary schools;

‧providing additional teaching posts to all eligible aided primary ordinary schools since the 2001/02 s.y. to strengthen library services and to support the extension of Chinese and English Extensive Reading Schemes;

‧upgrading a post to senior teacher rank in each public sector primary school with 6 or more classes to provide curriculum leadership in the teaching of English to improve coordination, planning and methodology;

‧setting up a Language Corner in the Central Resources Centre established in 2006 to provide resources on the Chinese Language Education KLA and English Language Education KLA for teachers’ reference;

‧implementing the Putonghua curriculum as a core subject at both primary and secondary levels since the 1998/99 s.y..

To strengthen the teaching and learning of English in secondary schools and to support the wider use of Putonghua to teach the Chinese Language subject in primary and secondary schools, $1,100 million has been injected to the Language Fund.

• by improving the learning and teaching environment

School premises completed in recent years, some 40% bigger than the standard designs of 1995 in terms of total floor areas, provide more facilities and open space to meet the latest requirements for effective learning and teaching.  Most of them are individually designed by architects in the market, taking into consideration their physical locations and the educational visions of the school sponsoring bodies.

• by providing education services for newly arrived children and young people from the Mainland

We are closely monitoring the admission of children and young people from the Mainland to ensure that there are adequate school places and support services to cater for their educational needs. In parallel, we have been providing the following support services for children and young people from the Mainland to help them integrate into the local school system as soon as possible -

‧ school placement assistance

‧ Induction Programme

‧ School-based Support Scheme

‧ Initiation Programme

More details are available on the webpage on Education and Support Services for Newly Arrived Children.