Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Secretary for Education and Manpower Joseph W P Wong said November 25 that the whole-day primary schools should make full use of their additional resources.

"The whole-day primary schooling is much better than bi-sessional operation because it will provide a quality learning and teaching environment conducive to an all-round education for the

students," Wong said at the opening ceremony of the Leung Sing Tak Primary School in Tseung Kwan O.

"As the government is pressing ahead with the implementation of whole-day primary schooling, some whole-day schools still stick to practices of a bi-sessional school and do not provide enough opportunities for students to participate in extra-curricular activities," he pointed out.

Most primary schools in Hong Kong operate bi-sessionally, but the government aims to implement whole-day primary schooling progressively.

Wong said that providing quality education is one of the Hong Kong government's major policy objectives, with the implementation of whole-day primary schooling being a key element.

"The government aims to provide whole-day schooling to 60 percent of our primary students by September 2002 and to enable virtually all primary students to study in whole-day schools by

September 2007," he said.

To achieve this target, the government will have to build about 120 new schools at a total cost of 12 billion HK dollars (1.5 billion U.S. dollars), with an additional recurrent cost rising to 2.3 billion HK dollars (295 million U.S. dollars) per year.

At present, there are 255 public sector primary schools operating as whole-day schools in Hong Kong.

Wong said the Education Department would provide advice and assistance to schools having difficulties in implementing whole-day schooling.

"If there is still no improvement, the school management committee should explain to the public and be held accountable," he stressed.