ENG-2010 — Page 188

142 Education

Supporting Internationalisation of Education

Internationalisation is one of the key components underpinning the success of our higher education system. Hong Kong has a unique character of having both Chinese and Western elements in its culture. The Government firmly believes that it is critical to nurture talents with a global perspective in order to maintain Hong Kong's position as Asia's world city. Only then will Hong Kong be able to continue. to thrive in the global arena.

To achieve this goal, the Government spares no effort to support the internationalisation of education. Apart from implementing measures such as financing government scholarships/fellowships and relaxing employment and immigration restrictions to attract non-local students to study in Hong Kong, the Government also works hand in hand with institutions to step up exchange and promotion. By attracting quality non-local students, the Government will enlarge the talent pool and improve the quality of the population, and in turn support various sectors of the economy and increase the competitiveness of the economy.

To promote the development of the international school sector, four greenfield sites were allocated in 2009 for the development of international schools. Coupled with other facilitating measures, more than 5 000 new international school places are expected to come on stream in the coming few years.

Strengthening the Enriched Language Environment in Schools

The fine-tuned medium of instruction (MOI) arrangements for secondary schools have been implemented from the 2010-11 school year at Secondary 1 and will be extended progressively to other junior secondary levels. Under the fine-tuned MOI framework, schools can exercise their

exercise their professional judgement on the most appropriate MOI arrangements. In making their decisions, schools are expected to give consideration to their own contexts, including teachers' capability in teaching in English and students' abilities and needs as well as the school support measures in place. It is hoped that more opportunities will be provided for students to use and receive quality exposure to English so that they are better equipped for their future studies and careers.

At the same time, the Government has allocated extra funding to both primary. and secondary schools to help them implement or refine their school-based English enhancement measures. The EDB is committed to stepping up its efforts to attract talented people to the teaching profession, to continue helping serving teachers. enhance their professionalism and enrich the English language environment in schools. Focus inspections are conducted to help schools review the effectiveness of their MOI arrangements and to give recommendations to help them make improvements. A range of measures is in place to share good practices and experience, provide resource support and address teachers' professional development needs with respect to the use of English for learning and teaching.

Preparing for e-learning in Schools

The Working Group on Textbooks and e-learning Resources Development has made a number of recommendations to promote e-learning and the EDB started