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Findings on provision of primary graduate teachers released

The Government announced today (Tuesday) the findings of the Working Group on Provision of Primary Graduate Teachers.

The Working Group was set up last August to review the primary graduate teacher scheme in view of concerns expressed over the pace of the provision of primary graduate teachers and other issues concerning the scheme.

In releasing the findings of the Working Group, the Deputy Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joshua Law, noted that the Government had endorsed in general the Working Group's recommendations to improve the scheme. "The implementation of the proposed measures will commence in 1996-97," he said.

On the provision of primary graduate teachers, Mr Law said that to implement the scheme, 180 graduate posts were created in 1994-95 and 185 in 1995-96. An additional 300 graduate posts will be created in 1996-97 as announced by the Governor in his 1995 Policy Address.

"The Working Group notes that if the planning target of upgrading 35 per cent of the primary teacher posts to graduate posts is to be fulfilled by the year 2007 as recommended in the Education Commission Report No 5, the rate of provision would need to be increased to at least 500 per year.

"However, such increase would depend on the securing of the additional resources required. Given such constraint, it would not be possible for Government to make a commitment at this stage regarding the specific rate at which the provision of primary graduate teachers should be increased in future.

"But it remains our intention to speed up the rate of provision of primary graduate teachers, having regard to the planning target of 35 per cent by the year 2007, the additional resources that can be secured for this purpose, and the extent to which the quality of primary education has been enhanced.

"In this connection the Government agrees with the Working Group that a more comprehensive review should be conducted in 1999-2000, that is five years after the scheme has been operated."

Regarding other aspects of the review, Mr Law said that the Working Group had proposed to reserve for pre-service graduates 20 per cent of the primary graduate teacher posts created each year starting from 1996-97.

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