ENG-2016 — Page 171

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Education

Starting from September 2016, the government has extended its School-based Educational Psychology Service to cover all public-sector primary and secondary schools and enhanced the service by progressively improving the ratio of educational psychologists to schools to 1:4 for schools with a large number of students with SEN. By the end of the 2015-16 school year, about 42 per cent and about 24 per cent of teachers in public-sector primary and secondary schools. respectively had completed structured training programmes to strengthen their capacity to cater for students with SEN. With effect from the 2015-16 school year, the grant rates and the ceiling of the Learning Support Grant for schools are adjusted annually according to changes in the Composite Consumer Price Index. The ceiling of the grant is about $1.58 million in 2016-17.

The Endeavour Merit Award and Endeavour Scholarship recognise excellence in post-secondary students with SEN at publicly funded and self-financing institutions respectively.

Gifted students receive government help to develop their capabilities, including gifted development programmes that the bureau supports schools in designing and implementing. Learning and teaching resource packs are disseminated to schools and uploaded to the web. Professional development programmes and teachers' networks equip teachers with knowledge and skills in gifted education. A school network piloted at the primary level promotes professional exchange and experience sharing among teachers in different schools. Territory- wide competitions provide platforms for students to learn from one another and to demonstrate their areas of strength. Outstanding students thus identified are provided with further training and nominated to take part in international competitions.

The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education provides gifted students with courses, competitions, conferences, mentoring and online learning. It also offers professional development programmes to teachers through thematic courses, lectures and outreach activities. Services for parents of gifted children include the Parent Education Programme, outreach, assessment and consultation.

Information Technology in Education

The government launched the Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education (ITE4) in August 2015, building on past ITE strategies and other e-learning initiatives. This included the phased provision of wireless network services for all public-sector schools to facilitate the use of mobile computing devices in e-learning and a comprehensive range of other support

measures.

In 2016, all 34 sets of e-textbooks covering subjects at primary and junior secondary levels. developed under the e-Textbook Market Development Scheme were included on the Recommended e-Textbook List for school use.

Post-secondary Education

Hong Kong has 20 local degree-awarding post-secondary education institutions, eight of which are funded by the public through the UGC. The other 12 are the publicly funded HKAPA and the self-financing Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Centennial College, Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Gratia Christian College, Hang Seng Management College, HKCT Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education, Hong Kong Shue Yan

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