Latest news with #ReginaIpLauSuk-yee
South China Morning Post
02-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong schools slammed for poor performance despite getting more resources
A top adviser to the Hong Kong government has criticised the worsening performance of local students and teachers despite an increase in resources in recent years, urging authorities to set key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the cost-effectiveness of such measures. Advertisement But the city's education minister argued that it was difficult to see the immediate results of allocating more resources towards schools, such as increasing the number of teaching personnel. Veteran lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, who sits on the Legislative Council's education panel and is the convenor of the Executive Council, a key decision-making body, said on Friday that the government had poured a lot of resources into education. The resources had gone towards areas such as raising students' learning abilities, taking care of pupils of differing capabilities and boosting teachers' professional development, she said. But she argued that such a move was unjustified, as students and teachers had performed worse in certain areas in recent years. Advertisement '[The academic standards of students] are declining in terms of international assessments … and teachers showed no improvement in language tests; their proficiency in Chinese, English and Mandarin is poor,' she said at a panel meeting discussing the enhancement of teaching manpower for public sector schools.
South China Morning Post
21-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Legco patriots' budget criticism a warning that must be heard
It looks like things are changing at Tamar. The heat has definitely been turned up in the Legislative Council . Harsh words flew during last week's two-day budget debate for the second reading of the Appropriation Bill 2025. Advertisement The budget unveiled by Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in late February was the hardest one to stomach. It was also one of the most challenging, given the need to take away budget 'sweeteners' and cut costs, and was never likely to go down well. So the fact the budget attracted significant criticism wasn't unexpected. What was perhaps unexpected was how little the government has applied austerity measures to itself. Executive Council convenor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee has already called out Chan on the numbers game he tried to play in the budget when it came to cutting the civil service headcount by 10,000 across two years. Research by the Legislative Council secretariat suggests that at least 10,000 civil service posts have been vacant for six consecutive years, so we need only do the maths to see how meaningful the proposed cutbacks are in reality. Junius Ho Kwan-yiu has already said he will not vote in favour of the budget. Openly defying the government and vowing to vote against it might seem unbecoming by members the new and improved Legco, but other lawmakers felt emboldened to criticise the government during the debate. Advertisement The issues animating lawmakers the most appear to be government officials' failure to reduce their own pay while cutting the budgets of programmes that help the people, leaving Hong Kong's underprivileged, elderly and middle class to bear the brunt of these hard times.
South China Morning Post
02-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
No need to merge Hong Kong's RTHK with government press department: minister
Hong Kong's commerce minister has rejected a lawmaker's suggestion to merge public broadcaster RTHK with the government's press department, saying there were no overlaps in job responsibilities. Advertisement RTHK also came under fire on Wednesday over its staffing levels, with lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee calling for in-depth reforms at the broadcaster and better use of artificial intelligence to improve efficiency. Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah was responding to lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu's question on the possibility of merging RTHK with the Information Services Department to cut down on government spending. The government is set to record a HK$87.2 billion (US$11.2 billion) deficit for the past financial year, and the finance chief has vowed to cut government spending by 7 per cent over the coming three years. 'The two organs have different requirements in the nature of work, skills and experience. Merging them may not be the most effective way to streamline and save resources,' Yau told lawmakers at the Legislative Council meeting. Advertisement 'On the contrary, the merger may confuse the public about RTHK's role as a public broadcaster and the Information Services Department's role in promoting government public relations, which could have a counterproductive effect on the government's overall public relations efforts.'
