Teachers set for compulsory digital training

Primary and secondary school teachers in the city will be required to receive 30 hours of digital education training every three years, starting in the coming academic year.

The new requirement came as the Education Bureau on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for the implementation of digital education in primary and secondary schools, outlining 10 strategies with four key objectives.

The four objectives include enhancing students' digital literacy, strengthening teacher professionalism, optimising infrastructure to build smart campuses, and promoting cross-sector collaboration.

According to the blueprint, compiled by the Curriculum Development Council, as commissioned by the Education Bureau, teachers must complete at least 30 hours of training in digital education within their existing 150-hour training cycle every three years.

Principal Assistant Secretary of Education Edith Tse said she does not think the new requirement will pose an extra burden for teachers.

“We heard that most schools consider that the target of 30 hours is not very hard to achieve,” she said.

Tse added the bureau would provide at least 50,000 training places each year, adding that teachers could also attend programmes organised by their schools and other institutions.

A one-off grant of HK$500,000 has been provided to each publicly-funded primary and secondary school to assist with their digital transformation, such as spending on software and subscriptions.

Asked how schools were expected to sustain these expenditures in their recurrent budgets, Tse stressed there would be further support in future.

“In the [Quality Education Fund] fund, we have already reserved HK$2 billion for the promotion of digital education. So for the remaining funding, we will discuss with the Digital Education Strategic Development Committee, and we will provide additional support to schools, and apart from the financial support, we'll also have the other resource support for schools,” she said.

The blueprint also outlined plans to launch a new framework on information and innovation technology for primary schools to update their curriculum starting next academic year.

Asked if that timeframe was too rushed, the principal assistant secretary said officials were discussing with relevant stakeholders, saying a pilot programme could be launched to allow teachers and schools to get familiar with the new requirement.

Isabella Poon, who chairs the Curriculum Development Council, said officials have set indicators in various aspects to measure the overall effectiveness of the blueprint.

“In the blueprint, we already set up the goals, including at the school level, the infrastructure level, teacher level, as well as the student level,” she said.

“For each of these levels, we do have some actions that we need to complete ... We also have the timeline about which action we have to complete at what time. So, I think that is the measure of success.”

Poon said officials would flexibly adjust the timeline and make changes to the action items outlined in the blueprint to keep the document up-to-date with the pace of technological advancement.

Edited by Tony Sabine ...