Principals and teachers gave education minister Arthur Li Kwok-cheung and his former colleague Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun an 'F' when asked to assess their performance in a survey.
Results of the poll, which was conducted by pressure group Education Convergence, showed the Secretary for Manpower and Education, Professor Li, received an average of 2.32 points while former permanent secretary for manpower and education, Mrs Law, scored 2.43 on a five-point scale.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen received an average of 2.86, the highest among the trio, in the poll carried out late last month.
Principals and teachers ranked introducing small-class teaching and putting a stop to school closures as the two top issues the government should address, with each item receiving nearly 24 per cent and 22 per cent of the respondents' votes respectively.
Regarding their political and social concerns, adopting a faster pace in carrying out environmental protection policies gained 24 per cent of the educators' votes and introducing universal suffrage accounted for nearly 17 per cent.
'The results not only tell us that teachers are strongly in favour of small-class teaching, they also long for a cleaner Hong Kong and a timetable for universal suffrage,' chairman of the Education Convergence, Choi Kwok-kwong, said.
Teachers, who accounted for about 35 per cent of the 543 respondents, gave even lower marks to the three officials - with 2.18 for Professor Li, 2.17 for Mrs Law, and 2.83 for Mr Tsang.
