Background

Quality education is one of the top priorities on the agenda of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government, and effective education leadership is commonly considered as the key to accomplishing this policy mission. In the quest for quality education, effective leadership at the school level must be present to meet the diverse needs in this rapidly changing educational context so as to successfully implement education innovations and initiatives for enhancing quality teaching, effective learning, and meaningful schooling. In China and the Asia-Pacific region, various reform measures have been introduced to promote quality school education and education leadership for the new century.

Notwithstanding the impressive magnitude, scope, and scale of the policy efforts, the outcomes are still unsatisfactory, for missing in the quest is a new knowledge base for supporting leadership development and school reform in local and regional contexts.

This new knowledge base must blend together proven effective practices in the West and practical experiences in the East, with both basing on the advantages of traditional wisdom and the power of contemporary technology. Furthermore, the development of this knowledge base requires systematic and effective networking, for building up academic and professional networks to pool up the necessary intellectual strengths and resources at a global scale is crucial to facilitating and supporting local and regional leadership development and reforms for school quality.

In view of the above needs, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, as one of the leading teacher education and development institutions in the Region, aspires to meet all these challenges and to contribute to the noble pursuit. The Institute therefore establishes the Asia-Pacific Centre for Education Leadership and School Quality in a bid to play a leading role in the development of leadership and education quality in the Region.