ENG-2010 — Page 196

150 | Education

External School Review

The School Development and Accountability Framework, introduced in May 2003, seeks to ensure sustained school development through school self-evaluation, complemented by an external school review (ESR) to give schools the benefit of feedback and suggestions for improvement from team of reviewers with perspectives across schools. The new phase of the ESR started in the 2008-09 school year. It will continue to be improvement-oriented, and is expected to cover all schools in the public sector in about six years.

Governance of Tertiary Institutions

Each tertiary institution has its own structure of governance. The structure includes a governing body, called the council or the court, and a body to regulate. academic affairs, called the senate or the academic board.

Curriculum Development

Curriculum Development Council

The Curriculum Development Council is an advisory body that makes recommendations to the Government on all matters relating to school curriculum development from kindergarten to senior secondary levels. Its members include heads of schools, practising teachers, parents, employers, academics from tertiary institutions, professionals from related fields or related bodies, representatives from the HKEAA and the VTC, as well as EDB officers.

The Curriculum

The school curriculum provides five essential learning experiences: moral and civic education, intellectual development, community service, physical and aesthetic development, career-related experiences for lifelong learning and the whole-person development of students. Curriculum reform progresses in tandem with schools' adaptation to the central curriculum to meet the needs of their students. There have been improvements in students' generic capabilities, values and attitudes, and students are becoming independent learners. Through experience and reflective practice, schools' professional competence is rising and the quality of learning and teaching will be further enhanced.

The New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum, implemented in 2009, is supported by a flexible, coherent and diversified curriculum aimed at catering for students' varied interests, needs, aptitudes and abilities. Students are required to take four core subjects and acquire Other Learning Experience. In addition, they can choose two to three subjects from 20 NSS elective subjects, a range of Applied Learning (APL) courses or six other language subjects according to their interests.

Apl courses are introduced to Secondary 5 and 6 to cater for students' diverse learning needs by offering studies with stronger elements of practical learning linked to broad professional and vocational fields. In the first cohort (2010-12), 30 ApL courses are offered with the participation of about 7 000 students from about 300 schools. In the second cohort (2011-13), 35 ApL courses will be offered by 12 course providers.