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The Education Bureau (EDB) announced today (November 24) that the three-month consultation on "Continual Renewal from Strength to Strength: New Academic Structure (NAS) Medium-term Review and Beyond" has been jointly launched by the EDB, the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) and the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) to collect views from schools and different stakeholders.
The ongoing curriculum renewal cycle is part of the NAS Review, which aims at responding to the changes at a more macro level such as economic, scientific and technological developments over the past years in our society and around the world, as well as addressing the practical concerns faced by schools in the implementation of the senior secondary curriculum. The present review builds on the strength of the basic education reform, the smooth implementation of the NAS, the fine-tuning recommendations of the NAS Short-term Review and the first batch of recommendations of the NAS Medium-term Review. The present review, as a process of continual renewal, encompasses the further review of the curriculum and assessment of subjects to see how the aims of education can be better achieved, and the holistic review of School-based Assessment to address issues of cross-subject co-ordination and workload.
The Chairperson of the CDC, Professor Kenneth Young, said, "Moving with the times, our school curriculum must continue to evolve and improve. The NAS Medium-term Review continues to adopt a student learning-centred approach. The curriculum builds on essential learning elements of all the Key Learning Areas at junior secondary level (such as Chinese history and culture, knowledge of science and technology, and biliterate and trilingual abilities) and is geared towards achieving the overall learning goals for secondary education. Developing curriculum and assessment is an interactive, trust-building and dynamic and process, in order to ensure that these are up to date and effective in building up a strong and diverse talent pool in society."
The Chairperson of the HKEAA Public Examinations Board (PEB), Ms Ruth Shek, said, "Assessment and feedback are part and parcel of promoting student learning, and closely linked to curriculum objectives and design. The current curriculum and assessment frameworks should maintain international standards and recognition. Different stakeholders should be engaged, and feedback collected from multiple channels would be provided to relevant CDC and HKEAA committees for holistic deliberations."
The consultation will run from today to February 28, 2015. The EDB, the CDC and the HKEAA will jointly hold seminars, briefing sessions, meetings and focus group meetings with stakeholders such as principals, teachers, tertiary institutions, parents and employers to collect their views and feedback.
A School Survey comprising the School Leaders Questionnaire and subject-level questionnaires will be conducted from today to January 6, 2015. The School Leaders Questionnaire aims to collect views from school principals and vice-principals on system- and school-level issues, while the rest are to collect views from subject panel heads and teachers on curriculum and assessment issues. Some subjects with fine-tuning measures introduced in the NAS Short-term Review or the first batch of recommendations of the NAS Medium-term Review will be implemented as scheduled. Further communication with stakeholders on those fine tuning measures will be conducted as appropriate.
The feedback from the School Survey, in conjunction with the feedback collected from other channels, will be consolidated to inform deliberations at a Joint CDC-HKEAA PEB meeting. The last batch of medium-term recommendations is expected to be announced in July 2015.
The public can obtain the School Leaders Questionnaire and subject-level questionnaires (English version) from the designated NAS Review website (www.edb.gov.hk/nas/review/en). The Chinese version will be uploaded later. The public are welcome to express their views via this website during the three-month consultation period up to February 28, 2015, and to browse the latest information and activities of the NAS through the NAS Web Bulletin (www.edb.gov.hk/nas/en).
Ends/Monday, November 24, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:25
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