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There have been considerable
controversies over the Language Proficiency Assessment for
Teachers (LPAT) and the language standard of our students.
How has the Institute tackled the problem? |
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LPAT has damaged teacher morale in Hong
Kong and the attractiveness of teacher education courses
and teaching as a profession. Nonetheless, the intense public
debate has resulted in a better understanding of the complexities
of the issue. For example, it is now known that LPAT is
a test designed for people with four years of university
education in language teaching. Unfortunately many candidates,
including our former students, who sat for LPAT, were not
trained to teach English. Rather they had been asked by
their schools to teach it in view of the acute shortage
of language teachers.
To tackle the issue, we now ensure that students preparing
to teach English cannot proceed to their final year of studies
unless they demonstrate adequate language proficiency. The
phasing out of sub-degree programmes will also help address
the problem, as all teachers become graduates who have been
professionally trained in a stringent quality assurance
environment. |
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What plans do you have
to take HKIEd forward? |
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A critical task for the HKIEd will be to provide the
support which schools and teachers will need to ensure
that the upcoming curriculum reforms are successfully
implemented. These reforms will create a large demand
for teachers of Liberal Studies and they will require
schools to strengthen their capacity in three areas:
-
catering for a more diversified
student body in terms of their levels of competence
and motivation;
-
developing school-based assessment
strategies;
-
effecting curriculum leadership
to ensure that schools can continuously improve the
curriculum and cater for the needs of all pupils.
The Institute will further strengthen and develop its
professional development activities to ensure we work
in partnership with schools to help them to address these
needs and successfully implement the reforms.
A fundamental problem which the community will have to
address is the declining attractiveness of teaching as
a career for graduates and school leavers. This has emerged
as a consequence of the widespread media coverage of topics
such as teacher redundancies and school closures.
We will need to continue developing our capabilities to
help both teachers and schools improve the education that
they provide to their pupils. I am particularly gratified
that since our first group of Bachelor degree graduates
entered the profession in 2002, school principals have
shown an increasing appreciation of their professionalism,
a development they see as a major improvement on past
standards. Sustaining this achievement is therefore of
paramount importance.
Paul Morris
President
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