Quality education initiatives in
Hong Kong: school networks
William Y. Wu, Dennis W.K. Chan and Victor Forrester
In response to the impact of globalization and the demand for a knowledgebased workforce, many countries have a shared vision to strive for excellence in education through education initiatives that specifically address the market-defined needs of the twenty-first century. In Hong Kong, there were both governmental and non-governmental education initiatives to promote quality education at both the community level and the school level. This chapter aims at describing these quality education initiatives and examines the impact of these initiatives with respect to fostering school partnerships and school networks. These initiatives include: the Quality Assurance Inspection (QAI), the Quality Education Fund (QEF), the Outstanding School Awards (OSA), the Thinking Curriculum Project (TCP), the Thinking Project for Secondary Schools (TPSS) and the Thinking Project for Primary Schools (TPPS). Finally, it concludes with reflections on these school partnerships and school networks, and raises questions for future research.
There have been changes and reforms throughout the documented history of education in Hong Kong (Bickley 2002). Most recently, a series of reports issued by the Education Commission of the Hong Kong Government have led to the implementation of various educational policies to address societal needs and demands (see, for example, Cheng 2000; Cheng and Townsend 2000). Schools either individually or collectively have to make adjustments to address these changes.
The school sector has to be responsive to meet the current needs of Hong Kong's knowledge-based society. Students not only are trained to master generic skills, for example, literacy, numeracy, and life skills (UNESCO 1999), they are also expected to be conversant with the developmental