The Education Bureau will launch the new Yi Jin Diploma Programme from the 2012/13 academic year for secondary 6 school leavers and adult learners aged 21 or above. Enrollment will open on June 1.

The programme will have 600 contact hours, 420 for core modules and 180 for electives. Core modules are Chinese, English, Mathematics, Liberal Studies and Communication Skills. Electives include business, accounting and information technology.

The Yi Jin Diploma is comparable to obtaining Level 2 in five subjects including Chinese Language and English Language in the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.

The diplomas for those who have completed a Maths Plus elective module are comparable to obtaining Level 2 in five subjects including Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics.

The Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Institutions accepts the diploma as meeting the admission criteria of their Associate Degree and Higher Diploma or equivalent programmes.

The Civil Service Bureau has also accepted the Yi Jin Diploma qualification as meeting the academic entry requirement of some of the civil service grades.

All eligible students will receive a reimbursement of 30% of the tuition fees paid for completed modules. Eligible needy students may receive half or full tuition-fee reimbursement, and travel and Internet subsidies.

The online enrolment and registration systems will open on June 1. Details on the Yi Jin Diploma will be available on bureau's website.

The Vocational Training Council has also revamped its existing Foundation Diploma programme to become Foundation Diploma (Level 3) programme for secondary 6 school leavers and adult learners.

The Civil Service Bureau has accepted the foundation diploma as meeting the academic entry requirement for civil service grades which require Level 2 in five subjects including Chinese Language and English Language in the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination. Click here for details.

The Self-financing Post-secondary Scholarship Scheme gave $36 million in scholarships and awards to 1,263 local and 27 non-local students in the 2011-12 academic year, the Education Bureau announced today.

Among the awardees, 952 studied sub-degree programmes and the remainder pursued degree courses.

Secretary for Education Michael Suen presented certificates to the first batch of scholarship awardees today.

The scheme provides Outstanding Performance Scholarships for students with outstanding achievements and the Best Progress Award for students who have made significant academic progress and improvement.

One-thousand students were awarded Outstanding Performance Scholarships and 290 gained Best Progress Awards.

The Outstanding Performance Scholarships for local and non-local bachelor's degree students are $40,000 and $80,000 per year. The scholarship for sub-degree students is $30,000 per year. The assessment criteria includes academic performance and community service.

The Best Progress Award is set at $10,000.

The Labour Department today launched a special website package catering to the pre-employment training and job needs of Form Six and Form Seven graduates.

Running until August, JOBS GO-GO-GOAL will benefit 24,000 participants through a series of diversified pre-employment training and job services.

The website will provide details of job fairs for young people under the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and Youth Work Experience & Training Scheme, and recruitment days in the department’s job centres and large scale job fairs.

The department will stage five consecutive recruitment days from July 23 to 27 at the Hong Kong East Job Centre and the two Recruitment Centres for the Catering Industry and the Retail Industry to provide diversified job vacancies and convenient employment services.

School textbook publishers have pledged not to further increase prices in the 2012-13 academic year, Secretary for Education Michael Suen says.

The Government will release the Recommended Textbook List online tomorrow as planned.

Mr Suen told the media today the publishers confirmed the textbook prices they originally supplied to the Government will not change.

They said they will supply the Government with the information requested, and enable the release of the recommended textbook list as planned.

"So there is no fear there will be no booklist for schools to choose from for next year," Mr Suen said.

The textbook market has been distorted, he said, adding, the Government will stop the monopoly.

The e-textbooks scheme could be a desirable alternative to highly priced printed textbooks, he added.

Secretary for Education Michael Suen says it is unacceptable for publishers to price textbooks for teachers so high.

Mr Suen told the media today textbooks for teachers are several times more expensive than those for students.

"At the meeting [this morning] I made it very clear to them I cannot accept the fact they have marked the price so high for the books intended for teachers, because over the years they have been using that book, and the costs of developing the so-called teachers' copy have already been absorbed in the production of the students' copy.

"They have been selling it for the last 10, 15 years, so whatever costs for developing those copies have been recouped. So that is why I cannot accept the contention that the price for the teachers' copy now is marked at a few times more expensive than that of the students' copy."

Mr Suen urged publishers to comply with the Government's demand for a textbook price list as soon as possible, to ensure they can still sell textbooks next year.

The Examinations & Assessment Authority did not take into account any political considerations in setting the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination questions on liberal studies.

Secretary for Education Michael Suen told legislators today the liberal studies examination, which requires candidates give answers on party politics, was in line with curriculum requirements for candidates to analyse socio-political phenomena.

The questions should not be regarded as politically-leading and they have no predetermined political stance, he said, adding the examination is to assess a candidate's ability to apply critical thinking skills, and make judgements and decisions from different perspectives.

Mr Suen said the authority has formed moderation committees for different subjects responsible for the development of examination questions, including liberal studies.

Stringent guidelines and procedures in addition to an internal quality-assurance mechanism are in place to ensure the quality and neutrality of examination questions, he added.

Eight students from the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education have achieved good results in the Asian Physics Olympiad, bringing home one gold medal, two bronze medals and three honourable mentions.

The competition was held April 30 to May 7 in Delhi and attracted 156 contestants from 21 countries and regions.

Pui Shing Catholic Secondary School Secondary Five student Lam Ho-tat won the gold prize for Hong Kong. The bronze medalists were Secondary Four student Tam Pok-man from Sing Yin Secondary School and Secondary Five student Lum Kai-chun from Queen's College.

The honourable mentions went to Wong Yiu-man (Secondary Five, Queen Elizabeth School), Man Siu-hang (Secondary Five, CCC Ming Yin College), and Tony Shing (Secondary Five, Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School).

To encourage non-profit-making publishers to develop electronic textbooks, the Government has proposed a scheme to provide them with seeding grants, Secretary for Education Michael Suen says.

Briefing the media today, Mr Suen said e-textbooks could be a desirable alternative to highly priced printed textbooks as their cost is 20% to 50% lower. The Government should also play a more pro-active role in promoting the use of  e-textbooks to diversify the market and address the current textbook-market monopoly, he noted. 

The Education Bureau is proposing to provide a seeding grant on a 50:50 matching basis to successful non-profit making applicants under the scheme. The grant will be subject to a cap of about $4 million for each e-textbooks set, or 50% of the development cost, whichever is less.

The Government proposes to earmark $50 million to launch the scheme, which would help non-profit making organisations to develop at least 12 e-textbooks sets, Mr Suen said.

Applications will be invited at the end of the second quarter, subject to the Legislative Council's funding approval. The e-textbooks are expected to be launched in early 2014 for the earliest use in the 2014/15 school year.

About 50 primary and secondary schools will use the e-textbooks on a trial basis, he said. The Government will help the partner schools to upgrade their IT facilities where necessary.

Mr Suen said the bureau will conduct a review in the 2014/15 school year to examine the scheme's effectiveness.

The Education Bureau has launched the One-stop Portal for Learning & Teaching Resources. It helps teachers develop learning and teaching resources.

The bureau said today the portal contains 6,000 teaching resources and more than 1,000 assessment tasks, covering resources for the eight key learning areas from Primary 1 to Secondary 6.

Other resources include General Studies at the Primary level and Liberal Studies at the Senior Secondary level, assessment tasks, curriculum documents, and information on professional development for teachers.

The Assessment Tasks Reference is provided to support teachers in designing classroom assessments related to the Hong Kong Diploma for Secondary Education.

The Labour Department today launched the Work Safety Alert mobile application for both the iOS and Android platforms.

It alerts employers, contractors, workers, and other interested parties to recent serious and fatal work injuries, and the general safety precautions needed to prevent recurrence.

The application can be downloaded free from the Apple App Store or Google Play. The alert can also be accessed through the department's website.

Send an email for enquiries on using the app.

Godwin Liu graduated from Beijing’s Tsinghua University in 2009 with a degree in Civil Engineering. With his "5A" results in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, Mr Liu was admitted to the university when he finished Form 6 in 2005 - without having to take the Joint Entrance Examination for Universities in the Mainland.

He went to the UK to earn a Master’s degree, and returned to Hong Kong in 2010 to take up a post with the Highways Department.

Mr Liu encountered many challenges when he stepped onto the Tsinghua campus. The teaching medium was new, and people he encountered had different eating habits and tastes. It took several months to adapt to the changes, but he had the full support of his classmates who became good friends.

"We lived together in the dormitory. When I encountered problems, I could seek help from them," Mr Liu said.

In everyday conversation, the students got to learn more about each other’s lives.

“I wanted to know more about the different areas in the Mainland and the Mainland students were interested in knowing the latest situation of Hong Kong,” Mr Liu said. “It facilitated very good exchanges of ideas between Hong Kong and Mainland students.”

He also joined in university activities, to get fresh perspectives on the local way of life.

In his first year, he spent a week of his summer break in remote Shannxi province, as a volunteer primary school teacher. This provided first-hand experience of life in the nation’s less developed areas.

“If you do your undergraduate [studies] in Hong Kong, it is difficult for you to have this kind of exposure,” he said.

Well connected

Michael Law grew up as a fan of Chinese culture, learning Erhu and calligraphy in primary school. His dream of studying in the motherland came true in 2004 when he enrolled in Peking University, to undertake a double major of International Relations and Economics.

“I understand China better, not just the economy or politics, but also the people and the culture,” Mr Law says, adding that would have been difficult to achieve if he had studied in Hong Kong or overseas.

Although he graduated three years ago, he still feels closely connected to China and his friends on the Mainland.

He now works for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, mainly responsible for matters concerning Hong Kong’s participation in international financial organisations.

“My experience in Peking University helped me to think from a macro perspective, to understand the relations between different countries and economies,” Mr Law said.

Pilot scheme

The Ministry of Education recently announced a pilot scheme in which 63 Mainland higher education institutions will consider admitting Hong Kong students based on their results in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examinations and the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination, exempting them from taking the Joint Entrance Examination for Universities in the Mainland.

Vice Premier Li Keqiang announced the scheme during his visit to Hong Kong in August.

The participating institutions are in 11 Mainland provinces and municipalities and offer a wide variety of programmes. Candidates sitting for the HKDSE and the HKALE in 2012 are eligible for the scheme.

Under Secretary for Education Kenneth Chen said it provided an alternative route for Hong Kong students, and relieves some stress in gaining university entry.

“Obviously, if our students need only to focus on one public examination, the pressure would be greatly alleviated,” he said. He added Mainland universities offer a greater variety of subjects, disciplines and courses for Hong Kong students to pursue, opening up new possibilities for them.

Expert advice

Hotel vice president Sharon Cheng said graduates who studied in the Mainland tend to be more mature. “People from different parts of China became their classmates and they have a chance to know the differences among people. They know how to think from the angle of other people. When they are in the working environment, they would be more independent.”

She said while students can easily improve their Putonghua in Mainland universities, they should also practise their use of English. Since Mainland universities stress knowledge and theory, Hong Kong students should undertake summer internships or part-time jobs, to use the knowledge they gain in the real working environment.