ENG-2002 — Page 195

EDUCATION

year, 60 per cent of the school places were offered on a whole-day mode. More primary schools will be converted into whole-day operation.

The 405 government and aided secondary schools were operating in whole-day mode and offering the grammar, technical or prevocational curriculum. The student- to-teacher ratio was about 18:1 and the ratio of graduate to non-graduate teachers about 7:3. Starting from the 2002-03 school year, all Secondary 3 students having the ability and wishing to continue with their study are given the opportunity to receive subsidised Secondary 4 education or vocational training. In 2002, 27 300 subsidised Secondary 6 places were available for HKCEE candidates.

To inject more diversity into the school system so as to give parents wider choices, the Government in 1999 introduced various measures to facilitate the development of Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) schools and non-profit-making private independent schools. These measures include allocating government-built school premises for operation of DSS schools, allocating land at a nominal premium with a capital grant for construction of DSS/non-profit making private independent schools, and further improvement of the terms of DSS schools since the 2001-02 school year. In September 2002, there were 40 DSS schools, offering 3 per cent of the school places. From 2002-03 up to the 2007-08 school year, a total of 10 non-profit-making private independent schools will commence operation.

Fifty-five international schools and 15 schools operated by the English Schools Foundation were operating in Hong Kong in September 2002. These schools form an important social infrastructure which maintains Hong Kong's status as an international business centre and a vibrant cosmopolitan city. They offer different non-local curricula, namely, American, Australian, British, Canadian, French, German-Swiss, International Baccalaureate, Japanese, Korean and Singaporean, and provide a total of 32 300 places.

The Education Commission (EC) is responsible for advising the Government on the overall educational objectives and policies, and the priorities for implementation as well as coordinating the work of all other major education-related advisory bodies on the planning and development of education at all levels. Following the coming merger of the Education and Manpower Bureau and the Education Department (ED), the Government intends to merge the EC and the Board of Education, which advised the ED on educational matters, in early 2003 to streamline the consultation process. After the merger, the EC will also advise on those implementation issues that have important policy implications with a view to ensuring better synergy between policy formulation and implementation.

Special Education

The Government's main policy objective is to integrate children with special educational needs into the community through coordinated efforts by non- governmental organisations with government support. While students with special educational needs or with a mild disability may benefit from receiving education in ordinary schools, special schools are operated for those with severe or multiple disabilities. With specially trained staff, a tailored curriculum, smaller class size and an adaptive physical setting, special schools help raise the potential of the target students to the maximum possible.

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