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Boost for education telephone enquiry service
The Education Department has doubled to 16 the number of lines for its Automatic Telephone Enquiry System to provide better and more efficient service to the public.
The 24-hour telephone enquiry service (No. 2891 0088) came into operation in February 1993.
The service is bilingual and callers can obtain the type of information they require by following the voice instructions in the system.
A spokesman for the department said the extra telephone lines would make it easier for members of the public to have access to the enquiry system and to get information on educational services.
He said: "The system enables the public to hear pre-recorded messages on a range of essential educational services. Callers can also receive hard copies of all recorded messages through their fax machines.
"The subjects covered include Primary One admission. student and careers guidance, application for supply teaching posts, special education service, student guidance, choosing a school, teacher registration, withdrawal of provident fund, non- graduate teacher qualification assessment and teacher mortgage interest subsidy scheme." the spokesman said.
"The system will also be used to make important announcements such as the suspension of school during typhoons or rainstorms." he added.
The Automatic Telephone Enquiry System received over 300.000 telephone calls each month - an average of 700 to 800 calls a day in the last school year.
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The telephone enquiry service system handled a record number of over 3,700 calls on July 25 last year. In the same month, a total of 40,000 calls were received when a number of rainstorm warnings were issued.
Even in the month with the lowest patronage, which was last February, the service received about 16,000 enquiries.