Policy Address
IX. Nurturing Talents and Youth Development
Nurturing Talents
Vision for Education
148. Education is the key to nurturing talents. My vision for education is to nurture our young people into quality citizens with a sense of social responsibility and national identity, an affection for Hong Kong as well as an international perspective. Education is also about building a good character, and the cultivation of moral virtues is the most essential. As a matter of fact, students must be law-abiding, able to respect different opinions and adapt to social life, in order to become a responsible member of the civil society.
Quality Education
149. After my assumption of office, I have been actively providing additional resources for the education sector in order to create favourable conditions for implementing reforms necessary for enhancing the quality of education. Over the past three years, the current-term Government has increased the recurrent expenditure on education by a total of $13.5 billion. Many of the measures implemented are meeting the long standing aspirations of practitioners from the education sector, including implementing the all-graduate teaching force policy and increasing the teacher-to-class ratio. Nevertheless, I would like to stress that the role of the Government in education is not merely a provider of resources, but also a policy maker, administrator and regulator.
