Proposed Creation of one Permanent post of Administrative Officer Staff Grade B in Radio Television Hong Kong
Performance monitoring and review
Mr CHAN Chun-ying asked whether DD of B (A&D) would deputize D of B in the latter’s absence and when DD of B (Programmes) was unable to do so. Mr CHAN also asked about the establishment of RTHK’s Systems Review Unit, and whether it had enough manpower to perform its duty of re-aligning RTHK’s resources with its organizational goals. He also asked whether the Unit would report to any advisory committee.
D of B advised that it was the prevailing arrangement for DD of B (Programmes) to act in the capacity of the Director in the latter’s absence unless under very exceptional circumstances. PS(CCI) said that RTHK’s Systems Review Unit took the role of internal audit and would select issues each year for conducting value for money studies. D of B added that the reports submitted by the Systems Review Unit would be studied by DD of B (Developments) and himself. In addition, RTHK was accountable to CEDB on matters related to the use of resources and would report to the RTHK Board of Advisors on matters under their purview.
Motion
Mrs Regina IP and Mr CHAN Chun-ying jointly proposed a motion under the agenda item. The Chairman ruled that the motion was related to the item under discussion. Members agreed that the motion should be proceeded with. At the invitation of the Chairman, Mrs Regina IP introduced the motion:
The motion proposed by Mrs Regina IP and Mr CHAN Chun-ying:
鑒於香港電台(“港台”)每年開支超過10億港元，費用不菲，本 會促請政府必須承諾，在港台開設一個常設乙級政務官職位以 擔任副處署長之後，必須採取有效措施，提高港台運作的成本 效益，包括檢討敎育電視的存在價值，並確保港台能善用資訊 科技，與時並進，加強對本港的體育活動的報道及廣播，以加 強力度支持本港的體育發展。
(Translation) Given that the Radio Television Hong Kong (“RTHK”) spends more than HK$1 billion a year, this Panel urges the Government to undertake that, following the creation of a permanent post of Administrative Officer Staff Grade B in RTHK, designated as Deputy Director of Broadcasting, it has to adopt effective measures to enhance the cost-effectiveness of the operation of RTHK, including reviewing whether it is worth maintaining the education television service, and ensuring that RTHK would make the best use of the most up-to-date information technologies to widen the coverage and broadcasting of local sports activities, so as to strengthen support to the local sports development
D of B responded and explained RTHK’s efforts in broadcasting more local sports programmes through its multimedia platforms.
IT Innovation Lab in Secondary Schools
Funding support for secondary schools
Mr CHAN Chun-ying expressed support for the Administration’s proposal of providing funding support for secondary schools to set up IT Innovation Labs. He asked why the Administration did not incorporate IT Innovation Labs into the secondary school curriculum. He suggested that the Education Bureau (“EDB”) should integrate IT elements into the “Other Learning Experiences” activities so that secondary school students could apply IT knowledge and skills in other areas such as volunteering services.
S for IT advised that the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (“OGCIO”) had launched the eight-year Enriched IT Programme in Secondary Schools (“EITP”) since the 2015/2016 school year to identify and nurture IT talent in secondary schools. With the experience gained from EITP, the Administration decided to implement the “IT Innovation Lab in Secondary Schools” initiative in all publicly-funded secondary schools in the coming three school years. Each participating secondary school would receive a maximum funding of $1 million for setting up an IT Innovation Lab as well as organizing IT-related extra-curricular activities (“ECA”). OGCIO would discuss with EDB timely on relevant measures to sustain efforts to promote popular science education in schools in the light of the outcome and effectiveness of the initiative, latest technology development and the needs of schools.
GCIO added that while EDB had made efforts to promote the development of IT in education through various funding schemes such as the Life-wide Learning Fund, the Composite Information Technology Fund and dedicated funding programme under the Quality Education Fund for publiclyfunded schools, the proposed initiative would aim at enabling students to learn about IT in publicly-funded secondary schools through enhancing IT equipment and facilities in schools and organizing more IT-related ECA. S for IT and GCIO said that IT Innovation Labs were meant to provide activities to students outside the classroom; and participation by schools was voluntary. These activities were complementary to the “Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” (“STEM”) education being promoted by the Administration.
Mr CHAN Chun-ying noted that a joint study conducted by One Country Two Systems Research Institute and the University of Oxford on the potential impact of artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology on the Hong Kong employment market. The study revealed that 28% of the jobs in Hong Kong could be at high risk of being automated and the working population in Hong Kong would face high chance of being substituted by AI technology in the next couple of decades. He enquired whether and how the IT Innovation Labs would help secondary school students learn about AI technology and pursue a future career that would not be easily replaced by AI. S for IT responded that in the new digital age, students should learn to make use of AI to build up their capability to embrace the challenges of automation.
Manpower situation of one-stop support centre
Mr CHAN Chun-ying noted that OGCIO would set up a one-stop support centre to render professional support to about 500 publicly-funded secondary schools. Expressing concerns on whether manpower of the centre was sufficient to cope with the additional workload arising from the new initiative, Mr CHAN enquired about the manpower resources that would be deployed for operating the centre. GCIO advised that seven civil service posts would be created to support the operation of the one-stop support centre. OGCIO might deploy additional internal resources to meet operational needs where necessary