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Part One: Goal and Plan
My government's goal will be to improve the quality of the average Hong Kong student.
This will be done by:
- Making pre-school education free.
- Improving the daily learning experience in the class room.
- Implementing small class teaching.
- Providing more post-secondary education opportunities.
- Giving autonomy back to schools, institutions of higher learning and universities.
- Giving choice back to parents.
- Building a strong partnership between education professionals and Government in educating the young.
The key problem in education is excessive control by the government, which has created substantial distrust between education professionals and the government. My priority is to rebuild trust and strengthen partnership.
Administrative measures will not improve the quality of the average student.
My policies will give flexibility and autonomy back to educational institutions. The government will play a facilitating role to help them provide quality learning experiences for Hong Kong 's young people so that they can acquire strong incentive for self-development as well as job-skills to succeed in the competitive market.
My government will regularly promote reading as a beneficial habit for both learning and recreation, and grant more assistance to community literary programmes. |
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Part II: Efforts on Four Fronts
A. tart Learning Early ¡V Pre-school education
Worldwide research shows the early experiences of the young are vital to their lifelong development.
My government will:
1. Help mothers to learn how best to care for their young children
Encourage and fund Maternal and Child Health Centres and community centres to provide practical information and facilities to assist parents to help young children develop their capacities.
2. Make pre-school education free
Provide a voucher system to enable all children to enjoy pre-school education which does not restrict parents' choice or undermine teachers' pay scale. |
B. Extend Basic Schooling to 11 Years
All our children should finish 11 years of basic education to ensure that they would acquire sufficient learning capacities for a sound future career.
The most effective way to improve the quality of the average student is to make the class room experience enjoyable.
My government will:
- Raise teachers' morale by recognising their key role in helping to form the minds of the young.
- Give schools flexibility and autonomy to experiment with how to improve the learning experience.
- Reduce administrative paperwork to enable teachers and principals to focus on teaching.
- Promote smaller class sizes to enhance the teaching and learning experience.
- Encourage reading to create the foundation for life-long learning by funding and promoting library facilities and reading activities in schools and in the community.
- Facilitate outreach to the community to draw on private sector human and financial resources to improve the learning experience for job-skills and life-skills.
- Raise self-esteem of students through encouraging mentorship programmes, and exposing students to post-secondary learning opportunities and job-skills they can acquire.
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C. Upgrade Post-Secondary Education
Hong Kong needs to continue to expand post-secondary education and provide quality sub-degree courses to give youngsters every opportunity to learn and develop.
My government will:
- Assist the sub-degree sector to determine how to better facilitate its expansion and improvement.
- Upgrade sector's profile to enable students, parents and employers to understand how this sub-sector is critical to Hong Kong 's transformation into a knowledge society.
- Facilitate schools outreach to the community to draw on private sector human and financial resources to improve the sub-degree sector learning experience.
- Raise self-esteem of students through encouraging mentorship programmes, exposing students to the variety of job opportunities in vocational areas, as well as encourage those who want to pursue higher education.
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D. top Cutbacks of University Education
Hong Kong needs to start to increase funding for university education after several years of cutbacks. University education should not be regarded merely as a source of economic security for its graduates but equally as one of intellectual development and personal aspiration to take responsibility for society.
My government will:
- Conduct frank dialogue with universities to understand how they see their needs and how government can serve as a better facilitator for them.
- Listen to the universities' concern for over marketisation.
- Encourage and fund fertilisation of skills so that those with the passion to help primary, secondary and sub-degrees students to improve learning can assist with curriculum and extra-curricula development in science and the arts.
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