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Education
The government provides these schools with additional resources such as the Learning Support Grant, professional support and teacher training, to cater for students with SEN. Professional staff members from the bureau visit these schools regularly to advise on school policies and support measures in implementing integrated education. School-based educational psychologists and school-based speech therapists conduct assessment for students, and provide consultation and support services for schools.
Since September 2016, the government has extended the School-based Educational Psychology Service to all public-sector primary and secondary schools and progressively improved the ratio of educational psychologists to schools to 1:4 for schools with a large number of students with SEN. By the end of the 2016-17 school year, about 43 per cent and about 28 per cent of teachers in public-sector primary and secondary schools respectively had completed structured training programmes of 30 hours or more to strengthen their capacity to cater for students with SEN. The grant rates and the ceiling of the Learning Support Grant for schools are adjusted annually according to changes in the Composite Consumer Price Index. The ceiling of the grant is about $1.61 million in 2017-18.
Over three years from 2017-18, the bureau will provide each public-sector ordinary primary and secondary school in phases with an additional teaching post, to which a teacher will be assigned as special educational needs coordinator to support integrated education.
The Endeavour Merit Award and Endeavour Scholarship recognise excellence in post-secondary students with SEN at publicly funded and self-financing institutions respectively.
Gifted students receive government help to develop their capabilities, including gifted development programmes that the bureau supports schools to design and implement. Learning and teaching resource packs are disseminated to schools and uploaded to the EDB website. Professional development programmes and teachers' networks equip teachers with knowledge and skills in gifted education. School networks at both primary and secondary levels promote professional exchanges and experience sharing among teachers in different schools. Territory-wide competitions provide platforms for students to learn from one another and to demonstrate their areas of strength. Outstanding students thus identified are provided with further training and nominated to take part in international competitions.
The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, government subvented since September 2017, provides gifted students with courses, competitions, conferences, mentoring and online learning. It also offers professional development to teachers through thematic courses, lectures and outreach activities. Services for parents of gifted children include the Parent Education Programme, outreach, assessment and consultation.
Information Technology in Education
The government has been implementing the Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education since August 2015. The major measure of setting up Wi-Fi on campus for some 1,000 public-sector and DSS schools will be basically completed in the 2017-18 school year. In sustaining the development, the government started providing from the same school year an
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