Hong
Kong Christian Service always believes in cultivating an atmosphere
of sharing among professions in order that we may jointly provide
effective and responsive services to society. We would like
to see what we strive for would impact both the social welfare
sector and society.
Conference
for the Pre-school Education Field
Our
childcare service has been enthusiastically delved into topics
of creative teaching and activity since the early 20th century.
We have received budget from Quality Education Fund to carry
out nine projects related to creative teaching and learning
in recent years.
A
conference on "How to Nurture & Enhance Children's
Creativity" was held in June this year for kindergarten
teachers and childcare workers. Enrollment for the conference
was extremely keen, more than a thousand people had signed up.
Yet, due to the seating limitation, we could only accommodate
five hundred and fifty participants. The speech given by a member
of the Quality Education Fund Steering Committee, Dr. Ng Tang
Mei Sin, stated precisely the purpose and the direction of the
conference. Dr. Ng says, 'the projects are beneficial in cultivating
a wholesome development in children; hence, it is worthwhile
to share the experience with those in the pre-school education
circle.' In addition, we would like to facilitate a unification
of the pre-school education system (both in structure and curriculum)
and to encourage sharing among pre-school educators on high
quality pre-school education.
During
the conference, we had invited different guest speakers including
governmental officials, educators of childhood education, influential
pre-school education scholars and experienced childcare workers.
Topics on 'Direction of Pre-school Education', 'Ideal and Reality
of Creative Teaching' and 'Relation and Application between
different education concepts and the nurturing of young child'
were tackled. We believe the conference has had an affirmative
impact to the educational field.
Territory-wide
Conferences on Parenting
Raising
our next generation is no easy task. We have come across many
perplexed parents who need support and resources in parenting
their children. The family solidarity sub-index has recorded
substantial net social losses in 2000 (-74) owing to the high
divorce rate, the low marriage rate and a sharp increase of
reported domestic violence (1).
This is indeed an alarming fact to the public. To respond to
such discouraging report constructively and aim to have a positive
territory wide impact, our Counseling and Family Life Education
Unit co-organizes with the Sing Tao Daily (which has a circulation
of 73000) four conferences on parenting. The focus is to help
parents create a firm, loving and positive environment for their
children. The topics of the four conferences are: "Little
king" in the family, Sibling rivalry, Parents' temper control
in disciplining children and When children encounters adversity.
The first two seminars held in May and June were fully enrolled.
Participants are now looking forward to the next two seminars
in the coming October.
While our families are indeed
confronted with unprecedented challenges resulting from the
rapidly changing social environment, such territory wide effort
has proven to be worthwhile in delivering positive messages
to enhance the quality of family life in Hong Kong.
(1)
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (2002), Social Development
Index 2002 Major Findings, p.3-4
