Government plans 'betray meaning of small-class teaching'
Government plans to limit the size of Primary One classes came under fire yesterday from the two main teaching unions, which said they did not go far enough and 'betray the meaning of small-class teaching'.
In a paper tabled in the Legislative Council yesterday, the Education Bureau announced it would go ahead with plans for a cap at 33 students for standard classes while allowing schools adopting small-class teaching to admit up to 27 per class.
The proposals are the result of a month-long consultation exercise on the introduction of small-class teaching in 2009 - a key pledge announced in Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's policy address in October and to be discussed by Legco's education panel on Friday.
The bureau's paper states that 70 per cent of primary schools have asked to be allowed to adopt the small-class mode, under which they will be allotted 25 students per class, in next year's intake, but that some schools may not be able to go ahead with the policy because of a predicted lack of places in certain districts.
Schools going ahead with 'large' classes will be allotted 30 students per class. However, the bureau advocates giving schools a 10 per cent 'buffer', allowing them to admit extra pupils outside the central allocations process - a common practice among popular schools.
Cheung Man-kwong, president of the Professional Teachers' Union, said the cap should be rigidly set at 25 and 30 students for all schools unless they had 'special reasons' for admitting extra students. 'If you allow schools allocated 25 students to take in more, then that betrays the meaning of small-class teaching.'