. 9.
School education indicators discussed
The Board of Education today (Monday) welcomed the compilation of 57 education indicators by the Education Department to systematically monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of Hong Kong's school education system.
The Chairman of the board, Dr Tam Man-kwan, said after today's board meeting that the indicators are useful quantitative statistics that measure performance over time, pinpoint strengths and weaknesses of the education system, and may help policy-makers to identify future direction and needs.
The 57 identified indicators are classified into three groups.
The first is a group of 31 "provision" indicators which give information on the provision of school places, adult education services, teachers and teacher training, and education expenditure.
Examples of this group are the pupil-teacher ratio in primary and secondary schools and the Government's education expenditure as a percentage of the gross domestic product.
Another 11 "process" indicators cover curriculum aspects, guidance and support services, school improvement measures and parental participation.
An example is the percentage of P1 to P3 classes in public sector schools which adopt the activity approach to teaching.
In addition, there are 15 "performance" indicators, such as illiteracy rate, which cover academic aspects, sports/cultural/aesthetic aspects and affective/behavioural aspects.
Some of the highlights from the 57 indicators include:
* The illiterate population aged 15 and above has dropped from about 39 per
cent in 1961 to 13 per cent in 1991.
* The provision of subsidised S4 places to the 15-year-old population increased steadily from 79 per cent in 1990-91 to 84.6 per cent in 1994-95, which is very close to the target provision of 85 per cent.
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