Last cycle for teacher qualification assessment
The Education Department has decided that the Non-graduate Teacher Qualifications Assessment (NGTQA) Scheme, under which holders of qualifications obtained outside Hong Kong are assessed for the purpose of entering the teaching profession, should be discontinued after the 1997 cycle.
However, the department will honour its commitments made to NGTQA candidates in previous cycles regarding resitting arrangements for the examinations concerned, the conduct of the English Oral Proficiency Test and supervised teaching practice, completion of which should take two to four years.
Applications for the last cycle of the NGTQA Scheme will be invited in mid- November 1996. Details will be announced separately.
The NGTQA Scheme was introduced in 1993 in accordance with recommendations in Education Commission Report No 5 to identify a wider pool of potential teachers who obtained their qualifications and training outside Hong Kong.
The Scheme enables suitable applicants to become qualified teachers once their academic and professional competence is demonstrated.
Candidates who pass Parts I and II or all three parts of the NGTQA examinations are eligible for appointment as Certificated Masters/Mistresses in government primary schools or as permitted teachers in aided primary schools.
Taiwan.
The vast majority of candidates have obtained their qualifications in China or
A working group comprising representatives from the Education and Manpower Branch, the Education Department, Hong Kong Institute of Education and the primary school sector considered after a review that continuation of the scheme in the longer term would not be justified.
However, in order to provide potential candidates with a last chance, the scheme should be run for one last cycle in 1997.
The group's recommendation has been endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ).
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