Nurturing Young I&T Talent

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung

I am delighted to learn today is the closing ceremony of the "CFSS (Chinese Foundation Secondary School) · Innovation · STREAM" programme. The programme was launched last year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. I understand that STREAM stands for science, technology, reading and writing, engineering, arts and mathematics education. It echoes well with the STEM education that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has all along promoted, to enhance the ability of students in the integration application of knowledge and skill as well as nurturing their creativity, collaboration and problem-solving capabilities.

Innovation and technology, or I&T in short, are among the top policy priorities of the current-term Government. The Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced in her Policy Address last October that the Government will promote innovation and technology development in eight major areas, one of which is to promote popular science education. To this end, we have updated the curricula of the STEM Education Key Learning Areas, and completed the drafting of a supplementary document on "Computational Thinking – Coding Education" for use by schools. We have also launched a series of intensive training programmes for the leadership tier and middle managers of all primary and secondary schools, to strengthen their capacity in planning and implementing school-based activities related to STEM.

STEM Education Centre

The STEM Education Centre newly set up in the Arts & Technology Education Centre in Lok Fu, Kowloon, has already commenced operation to provide training and relevant teaching support to primary and secondary school teachers and students. In parallel, we are collaborating with tertiary institutions and other relevant organisations to arrange more large-scale events for our students, such as education fairs, to raise the interest of the younger generation in science and technology. The permanent exhibitions of the Hong Kong Science Museum will be updated to promote using the museum's facilities for STEM education.

The Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation also organises STEM programmes for students from time to time. For example, Science Explorer provides tailored tours for students to discover cutting-edge inventions that are changing the world; to learn from successful technology companies direct possible career prospects; and to get into action at Robo Workshop to understand how mathematics, engineering, physics and coding work ensemble in building robots. To engage our young talents early, we will introduce the first-of-its-kind, Mini-Robocon this year for all secondary school students, to promote exchanges of experience in engineering and information technology among young talents and cultivate their interest in STEM education. I encourage all of you to participate in the contests, given CFSS' outstanding track record in local and national competitions such as the China Adolescent Science & Technology Innovation Contest and the Asian Inter School Robotics Challenge.

I&T career prospects

We have also placed great emphasis on our young talents in drawing up the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong. One of the strategies and initiatives that we have adopted is to provide enhanced information technology training to secondary school students outside the normal school curriculum, with an aim to attract more students to choose STEM for their education focus and professional careers.

Riding on the popularity of mobile devices, cloud services and social media, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer organises school visits in collaboration with professional associations in the area of information security. In 2017, 32 school visits were conducted to reach out to nearly 10,000 students, parents and teachers. We will continue to organise school visits to instil in students the importance of information security and healthy use of the Internet.

For more than a decade, the Innovation & Technology Commission has hosted an InnoTech Month every year to organise a wide range of innovation and technology-related activities across the city. This year, the InnoTech Month will be held in around October to help raise further the interest of the public in I&T through InnoCarnival, exhibitions, roadshows, workshops, guided tours, seminars, talks and science competitions.

The Internet Economy Summit 2018 to be held next month in Hong Kong will feature a youth programme for the first time. Under the theme "New Impetus for the New Economy", this annual flagship information and communication technology event will arrange Hong Kong ICT Awards winners to meet secondary and tertiary students to share their experience and views on possible career prospects that our younger generation may pursue in the area of I&T.

We also recognise students' efforts through award schemes, thereby nurturing an I&T culture in schools. Since 2014, a dedicated category of Student Invention/Innovation has been added to the Hong Kong ICT Awards to recognise excellent achievements made by our young inventors at school.

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung gave these remarks at the opening ceremony of the Chinese Foundation Secondary School Open Day 2018 on March 16.