Vice-Chancellor, Dr Leung, Distinguished Guests, Parents, Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to have been invited to attend this graduation ceremony and am pleased to be able to share the joy and pride of the more than 600 students who are graduating today.

For you, the stars of the show, today is a very important day. It marks the completion of your professional training as a teacher and you should all be proud of your efforts and achievements. What I would mainly like to do today is share with you some thoughts on the importance of teacher education. For those of you who have joined or will join the teaching profession (and I hope that most if not all of you will) there is a challenging but rewarding road ahead.

As some of you may be aware, I will soon step down from the Chairmanship of the University Grants Committee and join the Government's Central Policy Unit. In my brief term at UGC, I have strongly advocated the importance of teacher education. I consider this to be an aspect of our education system where a quantum leap forward and upward is called for, in the interests of Hong Kong.

While this may appear self-evident to all of you here, there is an ill-informed perception in some parts of our community that spending on teacher education, indeed on education generally, is a form of social welfare - that education is something the community has to pay for so that we won't feel bad. Nothing could be more misguided, in my view. Education is one of the most valuable forms of investment which any society can make - a fact that is universally recognised by economists who analyse the factors which promote economic growth.

The recent financial turmoil in Asia has taught us many things. One of these is how vulnerable our economy is to external influences. For almost thirty years, prior to the summer of last year, most East and South East Asian economies enjoyed a period of growth virtually unprecedented in human history. The 21st century was already being heralded as the "Asian century". In a matter of months, most of these economic dragons and tigers caught the Asian contagion and fell sick. In time they will, of course, recover, some more quickly than others. I believe Hong Kong will be one of quicker ones, because of the flexibility and openness of our economy. Some Asian economies may take several years to regain their health.

We are all living in an increasingly global market, where competition is continuously intensifying. The only way to survive is to increase our economic competitiveness. In this context, education is vital.

An increasingly important factor in this competition is the level of knowledge and creative talent. The higher the quality of our education, the more competitive and the less vulnerable our economy will be. One of our key objectives must be to make Hong Kong a knowledge-based economy, armed with a highly educated biliterate and trilingual workforce. Education is therefore not a form of welfare, nor a luxury, but a matter of survival.

I am sure it was with these thoughts in mind that the Chief Executive said in his inaugural speech on 1 July 1997 that "education is the key to the future of Hong Kong. Our education system must be firmly rooted in the needs of Hong Kong; it must enable us to contribute to the development of our country; it must give us an international outlook." Mr Tung correctly focused on this very important issue at the very birth of the SAR and thus immediately won the support of both educationalists and the community at large.

The SAR Government has taken concrete action to pursue this mission. For example, $5 billion has been allocated to establish a Quality Education Fund and measures have been taken to promote and strengthen school-based management.

The ultimate objective must be to improve the quality of our education at all levels. This is particularly necessary at primary and secondary levels where the foundations for the future are laid. One factor in improving the quality of education is, of course, improving our "hardware", such as the learning environment in schools or the availability of computers. Even more important, however, is improving the quality of our teachers. There are many ways to achieve this. One indispensable ingredient is to upgrade the basic qualifications for all our teachers to degree level, combined with appropriate professional training. This is an important task that only our tertiary institutions, among them the University of Hong Kong, can undertake.

In July last year, the Chief Executive announced, as a new policy objective, that in the foreseeable future all new primary and secondary schools teachers would have to have university degrees and appropriate professional teacher training. Immediately afterwards, the Government invited the University Grants Committee to conduct a thorough review of our pre-service teacher education, focussing specifically on three major areas :

1. the timetable to implement the new policy objective;

2. the implications of the new policy for the development of our higher education system; and

3. the roles of the Hong Kong Institute of Education and other local and overseas tertiary institutions in implementing the new policy objective.

At the same time, at the UGC's instigation, the Advisory Committee on Teacher Education and Qualifications (ACTEQ) was asked to conduct a parallel review of in-service professional training for serving teachers and principals.

In our reviews, we have studied a series of important issues, including:-

1. how to increase the supply of teachers who have degrees and are professionally trained to meet the demand created by the new policy objective;

2. how to achieve the right balance between the number of teachers with B Ed degrees and those with subject degrees plus a PGDE;

3. what the timetable should be for phasing out Certificate of Education courses;

4. whether serving teachers without degrees should be required to obtain degrees or other equivalent qualifications within a certain period of time;

5. how to attract high quality students to undertake B Ed or PGDE programmes;

6. how to ensure that serving teachers without professional training undertake such training; and

7. how to set up a professional training ladder for serving teachers and principals.

The UGC and ACTEQ jointly consulted extensively with educational bodies, professional associations and related organisations to seek their advice and comments on the Review of Teacher Education. With assistance and enormous goodwill and support from all relevant bodies, in particular the tertiary institutions, we completed the Review in just under six months and submitted our report to the Government in February this year as required.

In the UGC's report, we made a number of major recommendations, covering principally:-

1. the timing for all new teachers to be degree-holders;

2. the timing for all new teachers to be university graduates with professional training;

3. the means to make the teacher education programmes more attractive to good quality students; and

4. means to improve the attractiveness and status of the teaching profession.

Our package of recommendations was very comprehensive and, we believe, addressed all the major issues relating to teacher education. We firmly believe that if our recommendations can be fully implemented, the Chief Executive's new policy objective and other initiatives in promoting quality education can be achieved.

At the same time, the Education Commission has been pressing ahead with its consideration of plans to establish a General Teaching Council to address the issue of how to upgrade the professionalism and status of the teaching profession in Hong Kong, and to develop a professional training ladder for serving teachers.

We were also pleased to learn from the Chief Executive's 1998 Policy Address that the Government will start to implement some of our recommendations, specifically the progressive phasing out Certificate of Education places at the HKIEd and their replacement with places at degree or above levels at both the Institute and other local tertiary institutions. I am sure that this indicates the Government's commitment to improving the quality of our teacher education and that a more complete response to our recommendations will be forthcoming soon..

Against the background of this collective effort to raise our educational standards, I should like to urge today's graduates, as present or future members of Hong Kong's teaching profession, to appreciate that you are working for the welfare of Hong Kong. You are shaping our future. Our traditions have always included respect for teachers - respect for their learning and intellectual abilities and gratitude for their commitment to passing on their knowledge to us. I should like to add a further reason for us to respect our teachers, namely that they are providing a service which is essential for our continuing prosperity and social development.

Education has long been close to my heart. I have valued my time with the University Grants Committee because it has educated me on the key issues facing Hong Kong today in the educational field. I will carry this experience with me to my new post, where I will now be better equipped to support policies designed to give education the priority it deserves in our society.

Thank you.