Regular training courses for school principals at universities in Beijing and Shanghai are to be organised by the Education Department to help their professional development, it was announced yesterday.
The first batch of courses for primary school principals will be held at the National Training Centre for Primary School Principals at Beijing Normal University in April. Between 25 and 30 principals will attend the 10-day course.
Professor Lee Wing-on, dean of the School of Foundations in Education at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said two or three similar courses would be conducted in Beijing each year.
'Starting from this year, the courses will be run regularly. We hope all primary school principals will attend the courses,' said Professor Lee, who organises these departmental events.
He said the principals would visit six to eight schools in Beijing to gain first-hand knowledge of how education reform is being carried out in these schools.
Susanna Cheung Sau-man, assistant director of education (school-based management), said training courses for secondary school principals had been run at East China Normal University in Shanghai since 1997. About 70 secondary school principals had attended.
