To provide an opportunity for the school leadership to ponder over the challenges of implementing the new academic structure in a systematic manner, the Education & Manpower Bureau has organised a series of workshops on planning the 334 academic structure for secondary school leaders.

The first phase was concluded successfully in mid-March. A total of 2,257 leaders, including supervisors, representatives of school management committees, principals, vice-principals and senior teachers from 464 government, aided and Direct Subsidy Scheme secondary schools participated in 38 workshops.

As a follow-up of the two-day workshop, schools will have three months to prepare a detailed action plan for the implementation of the new senior secondary curriculum.

The second phase of the workshops will commence in late April for school leaders to share the outcomes of their planning. Similar workshops will be organised for the leaders of special schools later this year.

Positive response

During the first phase of the workshops, speakers from various sectors, including academic, commercial, medical and social work were invited to share their visions of the 334 reform. We also invited two to three principals on each occasion to share their experience in preparing for the New Secondary School academic structure.

The topics included subject arrangement, deployment of teachers, organisation structure, utilisation of resources, communication with stakeholders, and problems encountered in planning and suggestions on how to resolve them. These sharing sessions were the most well-received sessions in the workshops.

Most participants indicated in evaluations that they welcomed the workshops which provided them with opportunities for group discussion and reflection, and they could also share experiences with other schools.

Apart from getting a clearer picture of other schools, they could also review their own situation. As such, their team spirit has been boosted considerably to meet future changes. After attending the workshops, participants' understanding of the new academic structure has deepened. Their confidence in facing changes, particularly in school development planning and human resources planning, was also enhanced.

Some participants also indicated that the professional advice given by the speakers and the reference materials provided by the workshops helped widen their horizons.

Furthermore, they also have a better understanding of the substantial support for implementing the new academic structure, including funding policies and professional development programmes provided by the bureau. They also showed their appreciation of the support provided by the bureau in building partnership with the schools.

School concern

As the organiser of the workshops, the bureau was able to see what the schools were concerned about, such as how to plan and restructure the curriculum to allow for the diversity in the education sector, to utilise available space and to cater for individual learning differences; how to adapt learning and teaching methods to ensure effective learning under the New Secondary School curriculum; how to address the issues of teaching staff establishment and in some cases surplus teachers; how to attend to the special problems faced by the school middle managers; and how to overcome the uncertainties involved.

We were able to propose some specific support measures and developed solutions with participants to answer many of the questions raised during the workshops.

In fact, with the gradual resolution of issues set out as milestones in the preparation period, some of the uncertainties would be cleared up.

For instance, in mid-2006 the universities will announce further details of admission criteria, and the bureau will release the New Secondary School curriculum guide as well as the curriculum and assessment guides for individual New Secondary School subjects. The standards for offering classes will also be finalised.

As some of the "uncertainties" stem from the schools themselves, the school leaders must lead the whole school to set the direction for future development so as to alleviate teachers' anxiety.

More work

As the new academic structure will have Hong Kong-wide and far-reaching implications, there remains a lot of work to be done, both for the bureau and the schools. Nonetheless, we are delighted to see that apart from facilitating the school leaders to grasp the rationale and content of the reform, the workshops also served to gear up professionals in the education sector and build up partnership between schools and the bureau.

On the side of the bureau, various units, including the School Development Division, School-based Support Services Office, Curriculum Development Institute and Quality Assurance Division not only have strengthened their collaboration, but also have stronger commitment.

Looking to the future, the bureau will provide full support for the schools to further improve their own development programmes, and to implement the curriculum objectives progressively from the junior secondary level.

The theme of the workshops is The Future is Now: Vision to Realisation. We expect that school leaders will be able to put forward concrete and practical action plans for realising the vision of the 334 academic structure after fully understanding the situation both inside and outside the school and consulting their teachers and other stakeholders.

This is an excerpt from a column by Permanent Secretary for Education & Power Fanny Law published on the Education & Manpower Bureau website on April 9.