A survey shows the percentage of the public who felt they had good or some knowledge of the Basic Law rose from 25.2% in 2000 to 50.8% in 2004, the Constitutional Affairs Bureau says.

The survey, conducted in last year's fourth quarter, aims to gauge the level of understanding of the Basic Law among the general public and to find out how the public had obtained information on the Basic Law.

It also covered three specific target groups, namely students studying at primary four and above, teachers and civil servants. About 15,000 respondents from 10,300 households were interviewed.

The survey revealed 87.8% of the public claimed to have good or some knowledge of the Basic Law, or to have heard of it. Of those, the percentage of the public who felt they had good or some knowledge of the Basic Law rose from 25.2% in 2000 to 48.3% in 2002, and to 50.8% in 2004.

Students have good Basic Law knowledge

For specific target groups, 62.7% of students considered they had good or some knowledge of the Basic Law. Only 4.2% of the students claimed that they had never heard of it.

All teachers and civil servants claimed to have heard of the Basic Law, while 86.2% of teachers and 79.9% of civil servants believed they had good or some knowledge of it.

About 12% of the public surveyed claimed they had never heard of the Basic Law. They were mainly the elderly, retired people, homemakers and those with lower education levels. Around half of the students who claimed they had never heard of the Basic Law were students below the age of 13.

About 21.4% of the public believed their knowledge of the Basic Law had improved in the past year. The figures for the students, teachers and civil servants target groups are 34%, 42.2% and 32.9%.

TV the most effective publicity channel

The survey also revealed television was the most effective medium to promote the Basic Law - 81% of the public obtained information about the Basic Law through TV announcements and 53.4% through news and public affairs programmes.

For the three specific target groups, 54.5% of the students considered school lessons or activities were very or quite effective in enhancing their understanding of the Basic Law.

A total of 58.5% of the teachers considered the Basic Law promotion activities organised by the Education & Manpower Bureau very or quite effective, while 52.4% of the civil servants thought that the Basic Law activities or courses organised by the Civil Service Training & Development Institute were very or quite effective.

The Constitutional Affairs Bureau said the survey results demonstrated the positive effect of the Basic Law promotion activities organised by the Government and community organisations. The findings will be taken into account when planning the Basic Law publicity programmes in future.