ENG-2005 — Page 205

Education | 167

as the major knowledge domain of subjects providing contexts for the development of generic skills and values and attitudes.

The Government endorsed the Education Commission's recommendation on reforming the academic structure for senior education and higher education to help students cope with the challenges of the 21st century and the demands of a rapidly developing knowledge-based society. Under the new academic structure, all students will enjoy six years of secondary education and a smoother and more varied route to success in life.

University students will be provided with a four-year undergraduate programme that aligns Hong Kong with other major education systems in the world. Building on the solid foundation of the basic education curriculum, the senior secondary curriculum will better meet the demands of the modern world and to cater for a wider range of student aspirations, interest, aptitudes and abilities.

Information Technology in Education

The Government is committed to continuing the development of information. technology (IT) in education to prepare students for the information age and to equip them to become lifelong learners. A survey conducted in early 2004 found that on average, each primary school had 91 computers while secondary school had 247, all of which have broadband connection to the Internet. These are well above the original targets of 40 in primary schools and 82 in secondary schools under the first five-year strategy on IT in education launched in 1998. The curriculum reform has reinforced the role of IT as a tool to support the reform measures.

Riding on the achievements of the first five-year strategy, a new student-centred IT in education strategy was launched in July 2004 to enhance community-wide support for the sustainable development of IT in education. The key goals of the next strategy are to empower learners and teachers with IT, enhance e-leadership capacity in schools, develop more digital resources for learning to improve schools' IT infrastructure, provide continuous research and development and promote community-wide support.

Additional resources have been provided for schools since March 2005 to improve IT facilities and services, set up e-learning platforms for students and conduct seminars and workshops for parents so they can help their children understand the ethical, legal and health issues related to the use of IT. Professional development programmes, including refresher training courses and in-service courses, will continue to be arranged to help teachers integrate IT in learning and teaching. Teachers have also had access to learning centres since the start of the 2004 school year to help them develop, share and disseminate innovative learning and teaching methods using IT.

During the year, expositions, activities and competitions continued to be held to promote community participation in the use of IT in education. A computer re-cycling scheme was launched in December which attracted territory-wide donations and resulted in the delivery 20 000 recycled computers to needy students.