Representatives from secondary schools which became HKIEd partnership schools for the Mentoring Support Development Programme.

As a player in the higher education sector, we cannot work in isolation. We are constantly striving to extend our collaboration network through partnerships with local schools and education bodies and with universities locally and beyond Hong Kong's borders. This ensures that our staff and students gain a global perspective, learning from and sharing in the diversity and experience of our counterparts around the world.

Our Partnerships with Local Schools -
Enhancing Teacher Education and Mentorship Training
Established in 2001, our Centre for the Development of School Partnership and Field Experience has been playing an increasingly pivotal role in the development of partnerships with local schools. The Centre's work on 'Learning Study' for improving classroom teaching and pupil learning, has received international recognition. Over 80 schools have been supported by the Centre to conduct 'Learning Study' since 2001. The Centre was commissioned by the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) to support an additional 120 projects in a maximum of 120 schools in the following three years.

Our field experience arrangements enable our students to learn to teach in a supportive school environment where they develop their skills as professional teachers through on-the-job exposure. During the year, 2,700 of our student teachers gained invaluable experience in schools and classrooms from the 665 kindergartens, primary and secondary schools with whom we work in partnership. Field experience is by no means a one-sided arrangement which only benefits our students. We also contribute to the professional development of experienced teachers by providing them with intensive mentorship courses. Mentors play a key role in teacher education - they help guide student teachers so that they can benefit from the professional advice of a serving teacher and receive the pastoral care they often need to help them to overcome problems. Mentorship courses not only help serving teachers support our student teachers, they also help to prepare schools to nurture and support new and junior teaching staff in their own schools so that the early years of a teaching career become a more constructive learning experience. Mentors also experience professional growth from the mentoring process.

Over 700 teachers have completed intensive mentoring courses through a collaborative project involving HKIEd and the EMB which will continue this year.

Building on and consolidating our partnerships with local schools, the 1st Hong Kong School Principals' Conference, held in March 2004 attracted over 1,070 participants. The Conference constituted a unique form of continuous professional development for school principals. It provided an opportunity for principals and deputies to focus on issues of concern, exchange ideas and experiences, and express their views. Unlike normal conferences where academics dominate, here the principals and their deputies played the key role in articulating their views, with the academics providing professional support.