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The new Education Commission meets today

The new term of the Education Commission had its first meeting today (Monday) to consider its programme of work in the coming two years. This will cover Education Commission Report No. 6 (ECR6) on Language Proficiency; ECR7 on Quality in School Education; the review of the case for a General Teaching Council; and the co-ordination of reviews of compulsory and post-compulsory education..

Speaking after the meeting, the Commission Chairman, Professor Rosie Young, said "the Commission had made a good start in its new term of office".

"We reconfirmed the broad principles for a language improvement strategy, which we shall pursue further in ECR6," Professor Young said. "These principles are -

a strategy of failure prevention in primary education;

approaches to the learning of both Chinese and English in primary schools, which take full account of the complex language situation our children face;

better public understanding of effective language development in a bilingual/trilingual environment; and

more professional involvement by teachers and other educators.

They will serve as guidelines for drafting ECR6."

It is expected that the Commission will finalise ECR6 in the first half of 1995, and publish it before the summer for another round of consultation.

"We also decided to set up a working group to review the case for a General Teaching Council in Hong Kong," Professor Young said.

"The working group will comprise Commission and non-Commission members, and will be chaired by a Commission member who is not directly working in the field of education.

"We have asked Members to indicate their interest to join the working group and to suggest names of people who could be invited to join as co-opted working group members."

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