Cross-sector Collaboration
On cross-sectoral collaboration, the EDB has been working closely with tertiary institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and relevant government departments in developing diversified teaching and remedial resources, conducting professional training activities, trying out pilot projects, and organising a variety of promotional activities with a view to further enhancing the early identification and intervention mechanisms, promoting WSA and strengthening home-school co-operation in catering for students with SEN.
A collaborative mechanism is in place among the EDB, the SWD and the Child Assessment Service under the DH and the HA to ensure that when children with special needs proceed to primary schools from pre-school centres/ kindergartens, the primary schools can realise their special needs as early as possible and provide them with support. Every school year, upon parental consent, the child assessment centres of the DH and the HA will send the assessment information of the children concerned to the EDB whereas the pre-school rehabilitation service units subvented by the SWD will forward the progress reports of the respective children to the EDB. The EDB will in turn transfer the assessment information and progress reports of these children to their recipient government/ aided/ DSS primary schools before the commencement of the new school year.
The EDB has been collaborating with tertiary institutions in developing screening, assessment tools with local norms and teaching resources and providing professional support for students. Examples include the Hong Kong Test of Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) in Reading and Writing for Primary School Students, Hong Kong Test of SpLD for Junior Secondary School Students, Hong Kong Behaviour Checklist of SpLD for Primary School Students, Hong Kong Behaviour Checklist of SpLD for Junior Secondary School Students, READ & WRITE: A Jockey Club Learning Support Network and JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network.
Apart from the EDB’s collaboration with various sectors, schools may flexibly deploy the Learning Support Grant and pool together other resources to procure professional services in accordance with the needs of their students. Through the professional support knowledge and services from other sectors (including tertiary institutions, NGOs, and private organisations), schools’ capacity in catering for students with SEN is enhanced.
To take forward the policies and measures on the promotion of IE, the EDB set up the Task Force on IE in Mainstream Schools in 2005 (renamed as “Task Force on IE” in January 2021), which comprises major stakeholders involved in the implementation of IE, including the representatives from primary, secondary and special school councils, associations of heads of primary and secondary schools, resource schools, NGOs, parent groups, Committee on Home-School Co-operation, tertiary institutions and other bodies, such as the DH and the SWD. Through regular meetings with the Task Force, the EDB has kept stakeholders informed of the latest progress of implementing IE and sought their views on improvement measures in due course.