It has always been the objective of the Education Bureau to improve the quality of education in Hong Kong. To further enhance basic education, the bureau has been committed to introducing progressively whole-day primary schooling since 1993. In the Policy Address in 1998, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region expressly reiterated the objective of pushing ahead with whole-day primary schooling. The Financial Secretary also emphasized in his 1999-2000 Budget that greater investment should be made in education to fulfil the Chief Executive's pledge of providing quality education. Increasing the number of whole-day primary schools is therefore one of the main tasks that we must accomplish. Since whole-day primary schooling was introduced, it has received the general recognition and support from members of the community, particularly schools and parents. In fact, whole-day primary schooling is superior to half day primary schooling in all respects. For example, whole-day schooling can provide a better learning environment and a more diversified range of learning activities for the students; it relieves the tight learning schedules of half-day schooling and enables the school to design a more flexible curriculum; it provides more opportunities for better communication between teachers and students and enables teachers to give greater care to the students. All in all, whole-day primary schooling has positive implications on promoting all-round education and developing the potential of the students. |
(Only Chinese version is available)