address to this
Council
31
last year, I mentioned
the
desirability of working towards whole-day schooling for all
primary classes. This remains our long term objective. But,
given our
other educational priorities, resource
constraints and demographic trends, we need to be realistic
about how quickly we can achieve it. Our first priority
will therefore be a phased programme of converting senior
primary classes to whole-day operation.
56.
Chinese. The Government
of
We are an international trading centre where the
ability to use language well is 2 key ingredient
success. One important objective of our school system must
therefore be to improve the standards of both English and
has already taken several
significant initiatives. These have included sending large
numbers of local teachers overseas for immersion courses in
the English language and introducing a scheme to enable
schools to employ expatriate teachers of English. But these
measures are not enough. We need urgently to devise a
strategy that will deal with the difficult problems of the
medium of instruction and the quality of language teaching.
The Education Department will soon publish for public
consultation the report of a working group which has looked
/into
SE'd EE
S'I'D
02:41 TT-01-686T