XN000022-1997-03-14 — Page 6

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The expenditure on education in the 1997-98 financial year is $45.15 billion, representing 18.2 per cent, or the largest share, of the total public expenditure. This also represents an increase of 7.7 per cent in real terms, which is higher than the 6.9 per cent increase of the total public expenditure.

The expenditure in basic education is $30.669 billion or 67.7 per cent of the total expenditure on education. This represents an increase of 10.3 per cent in real terms over that of the current year.

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Funding for language benchmark pilot exercise welcomed

Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ), Professor Felice Lieh Mak, welcomes the news that the Government has approved $15 million to implement a language benchmark pilot exercise.

"Language benchmarking will not only help to enhance the language standards but also the professionalism of teachers, and in turn the quality of teaching and learning in schools," Professor Lieh Mak said.

As a starting point, ACTEQ has embarked on a benchmark study for the following categories of teachers:

teachers of English in the lower secondary forms;

primary school teachers using Chinese as the medium of instruction; and

primary school teachers teaching Putonghua.

In view of the impact of the benchmark exercise on teachers, a pilot exercise will be conducted in 1997-98, involving assessment of a selected number of teachers for the above categories, as well as the finalisation of the benchmarks.

The assessment will include written and oral tests as well as the language performance of teachers in the classroom. The Hong Kong Examinations Authority (HKEA) will administer the written and oral examinations while the Education Department will be responsible for the classroom language observation element.