Moving towards the end of colonial rule and socio-political transition, educational practitioners and researchers have witnessed unprecedented challenge and rapid development of education in Hong Kong and Macau. This symposium, conducted by HKIEd colleagues with experience in teaching and research in Macau and Hong Kong institutions, will examine and compare some recent patterns of development and school problems and related issues within/across the two systems of education in terms of curriculum changes in early childhood and primary education, teacher education, school administration and policy, nature and equivalence or recognition of academic qualifications, juvenile delinquency, expenditure and improvement of equity and quality in education, etc.

In response to reform of the senior secondary school curriculum, parents, professionals and schools voiced out the significance of the learning equity and opportunities of school graduates in special schools. Different parties urged the government to clarify the academic structure, curriculum arrangement and resources for these SEN students in senior academic structure reform. This was a territory-wide study on parental views and preferences of the senior secondary curriculum among special schools for students with mental handicap, physical handicap and visual impairment in Hong Kong. In the study, it was found that at the initial stage of policy planning, the further education opportunities of children with intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities after the 9-year basic education were not fully considered. The opportunities remained unchanged and were of limited variety. Other than the extension program in the special schools, there was no innovative policy and practice in offering further education for these students. Parents were dissatisfied the limited choice of the further education and career placement for their children after the graduation at the age of 18. They expressed their strong view on the equal opportunity in the reform of senior secondary academic structure. With regard to the scenario of development, the study further reported the views and expectations and preferences of parents. Parents expected a clear division of secondary education into junior and senior, two stages, as opposed to a six-year education without such distinction. The curriculum, arrangements and assessment of senior secondary education should be further enriched and strengthened. Education and vocational training for schools leavers were expected. The results were significant and the empirical data provided teachers, school administrators, curriculum planners, teacher educators and the authority with the insights for further actions. The teacher education in empowering

Global trends have led to marketization of higher education. The rapid development of Information Technology and the Internet challenge the established paradigms of educational enterprise. Hong Kong has restructured its economy in line with the Asian Pacific region and is undergoing change in order to establish itself as service based and technologically driven. This paper address online higher education in Hong Kong, with a focus on non-government funded continuing and professional education. Three cases of online education courses organized by public funded universities are identified together with online higher and continuing education in the private sector. Public-private partnership is developed between the higher education institues (HEI) and the online education service providers. The state intervention is only on traditional higher education programmes but the area of cyber education for adults is left to the market.

This pilot study was about the effectiveness of the integration policy for disabled children in Hong Kong's mainstream kindergartens from the viewpoints of teachers.
[Copyright © 2005 Common Ground, Yuk Ching Eva Lai.]

How Chinese language proficiency can be enhanced is a key concern in the Hong Kong community. As the current literature suggests that student teachers' beliefs and past experience show great impact on the effectiveness of their learning to teach, this researcher made an attempt to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning Chinese in primary schools - a survey that involved 501 student teachers was conducted. The key findings include, first, over 80% of the respondents rated their own Chinese proficiency average or above average, and over 10% respondents considered themselves poor in the mastery of Chinese. Second, while a total of 86% of the respondents considered themselves average or good at speaking Chinese, they still expressed the need to receive more training in oral presentation and writing. And third, among the 13 prescribed teaching objectives set in the syllabi of Chinese, "fostering students' thinking ability" came first in the survey responents' ranking of the importance of teaching objectives, reflecting they needed training in both the subject knowledge of Chinese and pedagogical content knowledge.
[Copyright © 2002 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Hong Kong families are increasingly diversified in form, structure, pattern and ethnicity. Working within the context of school improvement project, the authors responded to parents’ concern towards children’s language learning.
[Copyright © 2004 Common Ground, Wai Man Kwong, Po Wah Chan, Lai Ha Yuen.]