The Education & Manpower Bureau is now working with schools and school-sponsoring bodies to find possible ways to solve the problem of over-supply of teachers due to reduction of school classes.

Responding to a question raised by Legislative Councillor Yeung Yiu-chung today, Secretary for Education & Manpower Prof Arthur Li said there are now less than 400 primary school teachers and 20 secondary school teachers who have not yet secured a teaching post.

The bureau has advised schools and school-sponsoring bodies to try their best to absorb the surplus by means of internal arrangements including job-sharing.

A school-sponsoring body operating more than one school should arrange to re-deploy all of its surplus teachers to fill available vacancies in other schools under its sponsorship as far as possible, Prof Li noted.

To help alleviate the problem, the bureau will adopt the following one-off temporary measures in those aided schools expected to have surplus teachers in the 2003-04 school year:

* reinstating the previous flexible arrangement in gauging the manpower needs for split-class teaching;

* inviting suitable schools to run additional Secondary 4 classes or Secondary 5 repeaters' classes;

* allowing individual schools to operate self-financed Secondary 5 repeaters' classes or other charged classes at marginal cost; and

* allowing schools with capacity and experience to operate special programmes on basic knowledge.

He hopes that, with the concerted efforts and full support of all schools, the problem of surplus teachers this year will be solved by early July.

Vacant teaching posts in aided secondary and primary schools are estimated at 910 and 430, respectively, for the 2003-04 school year.

The forecast number of graduates from the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2003 and 2004 is 1,041 and 1,156, respectively.