Merger, cash cap head Li agenda

The merger of the two government bodies that oversee education is top of Secretary for Education and Manpower Professor Arthur Li's action list, he said in an exclusive interview this week. And he warned the new era would be one of leaner finances and tighter management from the top. Education had escaped unscathed so far, with government spending on the sector increasing by 47 per cent in the past five years, but Professor Li said spending cuts had to take place across all bureaus in face of the budget deficit. 'As we are all members of the Hong Kong community, we cannot be totally insulated from the problems of our economy,' he said. Professor Li, who took up his post in early August, is preparing his agenda. He confirmed that the merger of the Education and Manpower Bureau and the Education Department was a priority. The new secretary also pledged to press ahead with efforts to implement curriculum reform and upgrade teacher quality, despite plans to cut spending. The Education Department and the Education and Manpower Bureau merger would take place this year to avoid overlaps between policymaking and implementation, said Professor Li, who was the vice-chancellor of Chinese University of Hong Kong before assuming the ministerial post two months ago. 'We think it is an efficient way to merge,' he said. Immediate feedback could be gained from professional staff before a policy was formulated, he said. Cost savings would also be made. Also top of the new education chief's agenda is the strengthening of school management. He said legislation would be brought in next year to ensure that parents, teachers and alumni could sit on school management committees. He said he was ready to take greater action to haul weaker schools up to standard. 'We need to be able to identify the number of schools that are below what we hope them to be. We will then talk to them and help them improve. 'But if there is no improvement, we may have to take more drastic action like stopping them from operating the school. By law I am empowered to do it and I intend to carry it out.' Equally urgent for the new education secretary is to reprioritise education reform after the government announced this week that it would cut expenditure by 1.8 per cent next financial year to make up for a $3 billion shortfall. Professor Li has been meeting various education bodies in an attempt to reach a consensus on what could be delayed before putting forward his plan in the Policy Address next January. He said he would consider suggestions such as delaying whole-day schooling and cutting spending on the Quality Education Fund. Irrespective of cuts in expenditure, Professor Li pledged to go ahead with curriculum reform. This includes articulating vocational training courses into Form Four and Five levels so that students who complete Form Five could have a certificate showing competency in certain vocational skills, regardless of their results in academic subjects in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE). 'What is important now is to say not everyone should go to university. We should not increase the number of sixth and seventh form places to cater for the students' academic life when they are not interested in it,' he said. Statistics also showed that students who did poorly in HKCEE were unlikely to pass A-levels, Professor Li added. 'Fewer than 0.9 per cent of students who achieved eight points in HKCEE managed to score two Es in A-levels, which is the minimum entry requirement of universities,' he said. Eight points are the minimum required for Form Six entry. Two major reviews on the medium of instruction policy and secondary school places allocation system would be launched in the coming months, as planned by Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, who is now the Permanent Secretary for Education and Manpower. Ip Kin-yuen, lecturer in the department of educational policy and administration at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said the merger of the Education Department and EMB was needed because of the overlap between their roles. 'Staff from a large number of sections are despatched to schools everyday. But their roles can be shouldered by veteran teachers and university academics, many of whom have higher qualifications and more frontline experience than department officers,' he said. Tai Hay-lap, a member of the Education Commission and principal of Tuen Mun Yan Oi Tong Tin Ka Ping Secondary School, hoped that the restructuring would bring about more continuity. 'In the past, leaders of the department and the bureau only stayed in their posts for a short time. Hopefully, the merger will allow new leaders to stay on longer to ensure consistency in the implementation of long-term policies,' he said.