The Fifth Greater Bay Area Forum on Teachers’ Professional Ethics was held today.
The forum was jointly organised by South China Normal University and the Education University of Hong Kong, with guidance from the Ministry of Education’s Department of Teacher Education and Office of Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs, the Department of Education of Guangdong Province and the Education Bureau.
The forum, themed “Teachers’ Professional Ethics under the High-quality Development of Education”, attracted the participation of about 500 scholars, experts, principals and teachers from Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macau.
More than 50,000 Mainland educators participated online in parallel.
The forum’s opening ceremony was jointly hosted by Director of the Department of Teacher Education of the Ministry of Education Ren Youqun, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province Zhu Jianhua and Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin.
While speaking at the forum, apart from pointing out that strengthening teachers takes precedence over strengthening education, Ms Choi said strengthening the building of a teaching force is the most important foundation work of building a strong education nation.
She stressed that the bureau has all along been fully supporting the professional growth of principals and teachers as well as strengthening the building of morality and ethics of teachers, with a view to establishing a professional and excellent teaching force for Hong Kong.
In the newly promulgated Guidelines on Teachers’ Professional Conduct, the bureau has consolidated the consensus on teachers’ professionalism, with an emphasis on the integration of the pursuit of professionalism and commitment to upholding high moral standards of teachers such that students can be nurtured with correct moral values.
Through stringent gatekeeping of the quality of the teaching force, the education in Hong Kong can be promoted to higher-quality development.
Ms Choi added that the bureau promotes the professional development of teachers in full force, with the hope of further promoting the professional exchange in the Greater Bay Area in the future to enable principals and teachers in the three places to learn from each other and work together to promote quality education.
Additionally, the forum brought together educators from the Mainland and overseas to explore the building of morality and ethics of teachers in the new era through multifarious forms such as thematic seminars, talks, parallel sessions and thematic salons.
