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Education 143

implementing these measures in 2010. The EDB is developing a Depository of Curriculum-based Learning and Teaching Resources to provide a wide variety of digital resources for teachers to choose from and has just completed one for Chinese, English, Mathematics and General Studies at the primary levels. The Depository for Chinese, English, Mathematics, Science, Technology Education and Personal, Social and Humanities Education at the junior secondary levels is expected to be launched in early 2011.

The EDB will continue to sharpen teacher's IT pedagogical skills in adopting e-learning in schools by providing them with professional development training programmes.

Start-up capital of $500 million was approved in 2010 to help primary and secondary students with e-learning at home, including the implementation of a subsidy scheme from the 2010-11 school year to assist children of low-income families receiving primary or secondary education in gaining access to the Internet at home.

Overall Education Landscape

Expenditure on Education

In the 2010-11 financial year, the approved estimate for recurrent government expenditure on education was $52.2 billion, which was 22.7 per cent of all recurrent government expenditure, while the total estimate for government expenditure on education was $63.7 billion, or 20.1 per cent of total government expenditure.

Education Commission

The Education Commission is responsible for advising the Government on education objectives and policies. It co-ordinates the work of all major education- related advisory bodies in the planning and development of education at all levels. The commission also advises the Government on important implementation issues to ensure better co-ordination between policy formulation and implementation.

The commission has a chairman, a vice-chairman who is the Permanent Secretary for Education, seven ex-officio members and a number of non-official members. The seven ex-officio members comprise the chairmen of the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications, the Curriculum Development Council, the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Council, the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee, the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research, the University Grants Committee and the Vocational Training Council. The non-official members come from both education and non- education fields.

Early Childhood Education

All kindergartens are required to register under the Education Ordinance. Since 2004, all kindergartens have been required to employ qualified kindergarten teachers. The EDB aims to upgrade further the professional qualifications of kindergarten teachers to certificate level by the end of the 2011-12 school year.