The number of Secondary 1 students allocated under the Secondary School Places Allocation system will be reduced from 38 to 36 students per class next year. It will be cut further to 34 students in 2010.

The Government will also relax the threshold for counting the number of S1 classes for secondary schools with surplus teachers in September from 35 to 33 students per class. It will be cut further to 30 students per class in September next year.

Secretary for Education Michael Suen told legislators today the proposals will alleviate any impact of declining secondary school population and will ultimately involve $1.4 billion a year.

"I believe these measures will not only alleviate the concern of the school sector but also make a real improvement to the teacher-to-student ratio of secondary schools."

Other measures

Mr Suen said the Government will create a Deputy Head post in public sector primary schools and implement free senior secondary education from September.

From the 2009-10 school year it will implement small-class teaching in primary schools progressively and introduce the new senior secondary academic structure and curriculum reform.

The graduate teacher ratios of primary and secondary schools will increase progressively from September to 50% and 85% in the 2009-10 school year.

To help schools prepare for small-class teaching the Government will create 700 time-limited Certificated Master or Mistress posts for two years from the 2008-09 school year for schools indicating their intention to implement small-class teaching.

For schools unready to implement small-class teaching, if they submit specific plans to enhance classroom teaching and apply for the necessary additional resources in the 2009-10 school year, the Government will provide them with an additional Certificated Master or Mistress post in the coming year.

New academic structure

To further support the development and implementation of the new senior secondary academic structure the Government plans to disburse the Senior Secondary Curriculum Support Grant a year earlier in the 2008-09 school year and increase its rate during the four-year transitional period of the new academic structure.

"Our intention is to ensure in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years each secondary school offering the new senior secondary curriculum will be provided with a cash grant sufficient for hiring at least one additional graduate teacher. " About $1 billion is needed for paying the grant in the coming four years, Mr Suen added.

For secondary schools implementing integrated education the Government plans to provide them with a Learning Support Grant from the 2008-09 school year. The rates are $10,000 for each student with special education needs and $20,000 for each student with severe impairment.

For schools admitting students with severe impairment a basic grant of at least $120,000 will be provided. The total grant amount is capped at $1 million per school.

Learning support grant

For primary schools the Government plans to improve the funding arrangement of the Learning Support Grant and also provide a basic grant of at least $120,000 for schools admitting students with severe impairment from the next school year.

The ceiling of the grant will be raised from $550,000 to $1 million per school. It is estimated additional annual expenditure of $270 million will be required for full implementation of the improvement measures in primary and secondary schools.