ENG-1996 — Page 194

EDUCATION

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Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance takes effect in 1997. It will help the Registrar to assess whether courses offered by non-local post-secondary institutions. and professional bodies in Hong Kong are of a standard comparable to those offered by them in their home countries and thus meet the main criteria for registration to operate in Hong Kong.

International and regional links with higher education and accreditation authorities have continued to develop, especially those with the People's Republic of China. During the year, the HKCAA co-organised an international conference on quality assurance in higher education held in Beijing.

School Management Committees

Each school registered under the Education Ordinance has a management committee, which is responsible for the proper education of the pupils and operation of the school. One manager must be registered as the supervisor, whose main roles are to handle all correspondence between the school and the Education Department, and to oversee the management of the school in accordance with the Education Ordinance on behalf of the management committee.

Each aided primary or secondary school is operated under a letter of agreement with a sponsoring body, which contributes the full cost of furnishing and equipping the premises and manages the school through its management committee headed by a supervisor. In the 1996-97 school year, 1 053 aided schools were in the care of 389 sponsoring bodies, the largest of which operated 123 schools.

By September 1996, 290 government and aided primary, secondary and special schools had joined the School Management Initiative (SMI) Scheme. This was begun in 1991 to give government and aided schools more decision-making power and more flexibility in the use of resources, in return for more formal procedures for planning, implementing and evaluating their activities.

Training courses, seminars and workshops were organised to familiarise schools. with the concepts and tasks related to SMI. Pamphlets, posters and videos on the implementation of SMI were made available to both SMI and non-SMI schools. Roving exhibitions and visits to exemplary schools were also arranged to help promote the scheme to school operators and members of the public. A newsletter, the SMI Quarterly, was sent regularly to school heads and teachers to keep them informed of developments. The SMI Resource Centre was set up to provide professional support for the implementation of the scheme.

Governing Bodies of Tertiary Institutions

Each tertiary institution has its own structure of governance, set out in its ordinance. In all cases, that structure includes a governing body (called the court, the council or the board of governors), and a body to regulate academic affairs (called the senate or the academic board). Some institutions operate under three bodies: a governing body, an executive body and a body dealing with academic affairs.

The Governor of Hong Kong is empowered by the ordinances to appoint the chairman of each governing body, as well as a prescribed number of members. This ensures a balanced distribution of members from the industrial, commercial and academic fields.