SED visits education units in Beijing

The Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, visited a number of education units in Beijing to exchange views on various education issues and ways to foster education exchanges and co-operation between Beijing and Hong Kong on March 15 and 16.

The Chief Executive, John Lee, the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, and Dr Choi visited the Ministry of Education and met the Minister of Education on March 16,  Huai Jinpeng, to exchange views on promoting education co-operation between Hong Kong and the Mainland. Hong Kong will continue to align with national strategies in education and talent development and contribute to the high-quality development of the country.

Dr Choi visited Beijing Language and Culture University and met the staff to share experiences and views on supporting non-Chinese speaking students in learning Chinese and Hong Kong students in learning Putonghua. She also exchanged views with the students and teachers of the University. She said that it is essential for non-Chinese speaking students who call Hong Kong their home to attain a certain level of Chinese proficiency in order to integrate into the local community and to be competitive in respect of further studies and career pursuits.

Dr Choi visited the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the Ministry of Education to learn about the arrangements and requirements of the National Putonghua Proficiency Test on March 15. She said that Putonghua is the official Chinese language of the country. Hong Kong's language education policy is to enhance students' biliterate and trilingual abilities. The Education Bureau encourages teachers to continuously improve their Putonghua proficiency, which will help them lead students to take part in various Mainland exchange programmes.

Also, she visited the National Education Examinations Authority to learn about its daily operation and work related to the organisation of Mainland and international examinations on the Mainland. She pointed out that the operation of schools for Hong Kong children in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) allows children of Hong Kong people to study a Hong Kong curriculum and enriches their choices, which helps attract more of them to study in the GBA and further promotes education collaboration between the Mainland and Hong Kong. The National Education Examinations Authority also provided views and advice on setting up examination centres for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination in the GBA on a pilot basis to provide facilitation services for Hong Kong children to sit the Examination.

Dr Choi also visited Beijing Normal University (BNU). She said that the Government has always been supporting principals and teachers to participate in Mainland exchange and study programmes to deepen their understanding of the country's development, enhance their sense of national identity, as well as strengthen professional exchanges and collaboration with Mainland schools so as to enhance the quality of education. Among the Mainland study tours for newly-joined teachers to be launched next month, BNU will organise the tour to Beijing. With BNU's remarkable achievements in teacher training, Dr Choi believed that participating Hong Kong teachers would find the study tour rewarding.

Dr Choi will attend other events in Shenzhen today (March 17).