The Education & Manpower Bureau says education reform is designed to cater for students, adding all major policies have undergone thorough consultations, incorporated extensive views and secured support before being put in place.

In response to a procession organised by the Professional Teachers' Union today, the bureau said it realises while teachers are striving for enhanced education services for students, an increased workload is inevitable.

The Government has offered extra resources to help schools cope with additional work. Over the past five years, the recurrent expenditure on primary and secondary education rose 16.1%, from $24.8 billion in 2000-01 to $28.8 billion in 2005-06.

Measures to improve the situation

In the 2004-05 school year, the number of extra teachers or teaching assistants employed by schools with grants has reached 2,350. The phased introduction of teaching by subject specialists in primary schools from the 2005-06 school year will also result in an addition of 900 teachers.

The average teacher-to-student ratio has seen significant improvement. The ratio has improved from 1:22 in the 1999-2000 school year to 1:19 in primary schools in the 2004-05 school year, and from 1:19 to 1:18 in secondary schools over the same period.

The bureau has recently introduced three new initiatives to improve the situation.

Communication continues

They include seeking an additional $1.65 billion to top up the existing Capacity Enhancement Grant for a period of three years, setting up of a teachers' helpline, as well as an independent committee to look into teachers' workload.