LegCo Paper No. CB(1)44/96-97
Ref : CB1/PL/ED/1

LegCo Panel on Education

Minutes of Meeting
on Wednesday, 2 October 1996 at 9:30 a.m.
in Conference Room B of the Legislative Council Building

Members Present :

    Dr Hon Anthony CHEUNG Bing-leung (Chairman)
    Hon CHEUNG Hon-chung (Deputy Chairman)
    Hon SZETO Wah
    Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong
    Hon IP Kwok-him
    Dr Hon LAW Cheung-kwok

Members Absent :

    Hon Henry TANG Ying-yen, JP
    Dr Hon YEUNG Sum

Clerk in attendance :

Miss Polly YEUNG
Chief Assistant Secretary (1) 3

Staff in attendance :

Miss Pauline NG
Assistant Secretary General 1
Ms Connie SZE-TO
Senior Assistant Secretary (1) 5

I. Election of Chairman and Deputy Chairman

(LegCo Paper No. CB(1)2134/95-96)

Members were invited to note that in accordance with Standing Order 60E(6), members who were Chairmen/Deputy Chairmen of the government advisory bodies relevant to the Panel at Appendix I of LegCo Paper No. CB(1)2134/95-96 would not be eligible to stand for election.

2. Dr Hon Anthony CHEUNG Bing-leung and Hon CHEUNG Hon-chung were elected Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively.

II. Terms of Reference

3. The Panel agreed that the current Terms of Reference should continue.

III. Schedule of meetings for the 1996-97 session

4. Members agreed that future meetings of the Panel would be held on the third Friday of every month at 10:45 a.m.

    (Post-meeting note : Members were informed of the schedule of regular Panel meetings for the 1996-97 session vide LegCo Paper No. CB(1)23/96-97.)

IV. Items for discussion at the next meeting

5. The Chairman informed the meeting that the next Panel meeting would be the policy briefing by the Secretary for Education and Manpower (SEM) which had been scheduled for Tuesday, 8 October 1996 from 9:15 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. Non-Panel Members would also be invited to attend.

6. Since the Chairman would be away from Hong Kong on 8 October 1996 and the Deputy Chairman might not be able to join the meeting at its commencement, it was agreed that the Chairman of the Manpower Panel be consulted on swapping the briefing of the Manpower Panel (scheduled at 10:15 a.m. on the same day) with that of the Education Panel, failing which, members agreed that Hon CHEUNG Man-kwong would chair the said meeting.

    (Post-meeting note : The policy briefing would be held as originally scheduled i.e. on 8 October 1996 at 9:15 a.m. Members were informed vide LegCo paper No. CB(1)24/96-97.)

7. Members went through the "List of Outstanding Issues" at Appendix III of LegCo paper No. CB(1)2134/95-96 and agreed that the following items would be discussed at the next regular meeting on Friday, 18 October 1996 at 10:45 a.m. :

  1. Briefing on education-related bills
    1. Education (Amendment) Bill 1996 (Proposed member’s bill by Hon Christine LOH)
    2. Hong Kong Institute of Education (Amendment) Bill 1996
  2. Implementation of whole-day primary schools
  3. Issues related to the Diaoyu Islands
  4. Difficulty in the recruitment of language teachers

8. Members agreed that in order to allow sufficient time for discussion, no more than three discussion items should be included in the agenda for future Panel meetings.

9. Members noted with interest that a cosultancy report on the strategic and organisational review of the Vocational Training Council (VTC) had been issued. As issues related to the VTC were primarily under the purview of the Manpower Panel, members agreed that the Chairman of the Manpower panel would be consulted on the best ways for the Panel(s) to pursue the subject. It was also agreed that the Administration would be requested to provide an information paper on the employment situation of 1995-96 graduates of the Hong Kong Institute of Education for members’ reference.

CAS(1)3

    (Post-meeting note: The consultancy report on the strategic and organisational review of the Vocational Training Council will be discussed at the Manpower Panel meeting on 28 October 1996. Members of the Education Panel will be invited to join the discussion.)

V. Any other business

Provision of information papers

10. Members agreed that the Panel Clerk would write to the Administration to reiterate the Panel’s request that information papers should be provided on time in bilingual versions.

CAS(1)3

(Post-meeting note: The letter to the SEM was issued on 2 October 1996.)

11. The meeting ended at 9:55 a.m.

Legislative Council Secretariat
8 October 1996

Last Updated on 14 August 1998