EDUCATION
compiled and uploaded to the bureau's website. This provided schools and parents a ready reference to all related anti-SARS measures as well as to guidelines on such aspects as environmental hygiene and personal hygiene and the need to keep school buses clean.
The bureau rendered a wide range of support and assistance to schools and students. Special funding was obtained to assist schools in taking all necessary precautionary measures against the spread of SARS such as the purchase of masks, ear thermometers and chlorine tablets. To facilitate self-learning by students at home during the period when classes were suspended, the bureau, in collaboration with various institutions and organisations, provided web-based self-access learning materials and programmes. In addition, to educate students in the context of the SARS outbreak, teaching kits were produced to enable students to heighten their awareness and strengthen their ability in crisis management as well as to enhance their commitment to the community. A set of guidance activities to help pupils to cope with the situation and build up a school culture against adversity was also provided. To enhance communication, meetings were held with school councils as well as the Committee on Home-School Co-operation and the federations of Parent-Teacher Associations to exchange views. Before classes resumed, briefings were also arranged to ensure schools and parents were prepared for the students' return.
The concerted efforts of schools, parents and the bureau proved effective: no students or staff members contracted SARS in the schools during the outbreak.
Major Challenges Ahead
Academic Structure Reform for Senior Secondary Education and Undergraduate Programmes
The Government will consult the community in 2004 on the three-year academic structure for senior secondary education and four-year undergraduate programmes, including the conditions, financing and development of supporting measures. The reform was recommended by the Education Commission in its Review of the Academic Structure for Senior Secondary Education and its Interface with Higher Education Report published in May. Its major objective is to remove the major constraints of the senior secondary and university curriculum, and address related problems in senior secondary education which at present is largely examination-oriented. The reform is expected to reinforce whole-person development and widen the knowledge base of students.
Review of the Medium of Instruction (MOI) and Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System
To enable students to learn effectively without language barriers, the Government has adopted a MOI policy since the 1998-99 school year. Under this policy, schools are required to use the appropriate MOI having regard to student ability, teacher capability and language learning-support strategies and programmes for students. Since the appropriate MOI for most students is their mother tongue, 293 aided and government secondary schools have been using Chinese as the MOI for junior secondary classes. There are 112 secondary schools which adopt English as the MOI. In 2000, the Education Commisison put forward recommendations to reform the SSPA system. With effect from the 2000-01 school year, the Academic Aptitude Test (AAT) was abolished and an interim SSPA mechanism introduced. The interim
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