Curriculum experts from the Mainland will deliver talks on educational research and school-based curriculum development tomorrow at the end of  three days of sharing sessions with their Hong Kong counterparts.

The Ministry of Education and the Education & Manpower Bureau organised the meetings.

Curriculum Development Council Chairman Wong Yuk-shan will host a panel discussion tomorrow morning at Aldrich Bay Government Primary School. The Mainland curriculum experts will share their experience with council members, more than 100 primary school masters/mistresses and principals and teachers.

More than 20 curriculum experts have come to Hong Kong, including the Deputy Secretary for the Department of Basic Education Zhu Muju, the Deputy Director of the Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan Affairs Office Ding Yuqiu, and academics from Beijing, Fujian, Shanghai, Guilin and Guangzhou.

The bureau's Permanent Secretary Fanny Law said she was pleased to witness closer ties between the jurisdictions.

This is the third event of its kind, but the first time Hong Kong has been host. It provides an invaluable opportunity, and a milestone for the development of education in Hong Kong, Mrs Law said.

School visits provide insights, exchanges

This year's theme covers education research, school-based curriculum design, Chinese-language education, science education, integrated learning and teaching activities as well as moral and civic education. The programme has included group discussions, presentations, lesson observations in secondary and primary schools and talks.

Mainland and local curriculum experts and educators believe exchanges of this kind will help them in the education reform process.

On day one, participants learned about education reform developments in the two places. Today, they visited four secondary and primary schools for in-depth discussions with teachers.

A memorandum signed in Beijing in April 2001 aims to strengthen cooperation in the development of basic education through regular professional exchanges between Hong Kong and the Mainland.