Policy Address

VII. Youth Education and Development

150.     Youngsters are the future of our society.  I put forward in my last Policy Address a series of initiatives covering education, employment and whole-person development to nurture the next generation.  These initiatives, including enhancing support for life planning as well as education and career guidance services for secondary students, developing and promoting vocational education and training, and improving access to higher education, are being implemented one by one.  This year, I will press ahead with the following initiatives.

Education

151.     Based on the principle of preserving the characteristics of great flexibility and diversity in kindergarten education, the Committee on Free Kindergarten Education has looked further into such issues as whether to offer basic subsidies to all eligible children who are taking half-day places and whether to adopt a mandatory salary scale for teachers.  Moreover, the Committee will study ways to encourage kindergartens to provide more full-day services and consider providing needy families with subsidised whole-day and long whole-day services.  Recommendations will be put forward in mid-2015.  For proper use of public resources, the Committee considers that the provision should only cover the basic expenses directly attributable to children's learning and school operation.

152.     The EDB will renew and enrich the curricula and learning activities of Science, Technology and Mathematics, and enhance the training of teachers, thereby allowing primary and secondary students to fully unleash their potential in innovation.

153.     The EDB will renew the curriculum content of Chinese History and World History and enrich the learning experience of students.  The training of teachers will also be enhanced.  The objectives are to reinforce students’ interest in and understanding of Chinese history and culture and broaden their global outlook.

154.     The EDB will progressively increase the graduate teacher ratio in public sector primary schools from the current 50% to 65% in the 2017/18 school year.  This will be implemented in phases in the three years from the 2015/16 school year to attract more talent to join the teaching force of primary education.  The EDB will also, through pilot projects, consolidate more experience and evidence on effective means to strengthen the internal management of public sector schools and reduce administrative work of teachers.

155.     The community colleges of University Grants Committee-funded institutions have experienced rapid growth and some have accumulated large surpluses.  We will ask the institutions to critically review their financial position and consider ways to use their surpluses to benefit their students, such as lowering tuition fees and offering scholarships or bursaries for underprivileged students.

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