Clean campus: Schools will adopt a number of measures to promote student awareness of personal and environmental hygiene.

Civic and health education for teachers will be strengthened while relevant resources and professional development programmes will be provided to help schools effectively promote healthy lifestyles among students.

The Education & Manpower Bureau said the move is in support of the Team Clean Report on Measures to Improve Environmental Hygiene in Hong Kong. Copies of the report are being distributed to secondary and primary schools as well as kindergartens to help them put its recommendations into practice.

The concept of health promotion at school will be included in training programmes for new teachers from next month. For school heads and teachers, the theme of civic responsibility and its relationship with personal and environmental hygiene will be incorporated into the moral and civic-education training programmes .

The bureau believes this will enhance teachers' ability to develop students' critical-thinking skills and power of moral judgment with regard to personal and social issues.

All schools are now required to include action plans for civic and health education in their annual school development plans. The bureau will inspect schools and identify areas for improvement.

To offer teachers resources to promote students' awareness of personal and environmental hygiene, the bureau has set up a dedicated SARS column on its website.

A student website will also be launched next month to encourage them to post comments and suggestions on improving environmental hygiene in schools and neighbourhoods, and to upload pictures of hygiene blackspots found.

To further sustain students' impetus to realise the mission of "Live Hygiene, Live Health", a Pledge Day will be held on September 5. Participating schools will commit to leading a healthy lifestyle and keeping a clean campus.