Curriculum and teaching reforms: Challenges and prospects

The previous chapters have off ered discussions on issues related to educational reforms in Hong Kong as one of Asia’s high-performing education system. After the introduction of more than ten years’ curriculum and teaching reforms in Hong Kong, what can we learn from the experience? Based on the literature review and insights from previous chapters, challenges and potentials of curriculum reforms are identifi ed and discussed. Since the end of the 1990s, the government has encouraged the creation of curriculum space through some priority tasks, such as “trimming and restructuring the curriculum”, “reducing excessive tests, examinations and dictations” (Curriculum Development Council [CDC], 2001, pp.6-7). In addition, the government has advised the promotion of four key tasks (moral and civic education, reading, project learning and using information technology) as vehicles for curriculum reforms; emphasis of students’ mastery of “basic competencies in Chinese, English and Numeracy”, as well as the cultivation of nine generic skills and priority be given to “critical thinking, creativity, and communication skills” (CDC, 2001, pp.6-7). Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis.