Hong Kong, as an international city and a financial center, must nurture a young generation of people who had critical thinking, good language skills and a sense
of commitment to society to maintain its competitiveness, a senior education official said Friday.

Director of Education Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said that in order to inculcate a new culture in early childhood education, the Education Department had introduced a number of measures such as developing performance indicators for objective school assessment, encouraging school self-evaluation and enhancing parent education.

Speaking at the Fifth International Conference of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong, Cheung said to achieve this goal, life-long learning had to be promoted from early childhood which was the foundation stage of education.

On the theme of the Conference "Developing a New Culture for Early Children Education: Reflection on Reggio Emilia," Cheung said that it embraced the same spirit as that of his department.

"The child-centered approach of Reggio Emilia, with its emphasis on the encouragement of individual development in familiar environment, is definitely an effective way to promote children's learning," he noted.

He believed that the concepts and teaching mode of Reggio Emilia could serve as good references for personnel in early childhood sectors in their endeavor to enhance children's learning.

On the launching of "the Hundred Languages of Children," such as drawing, printing, sculpturing and modeling, Cheung said that the teaching mode could nurture children's multi-intelligence as manifested in their physical co-ordination, creativity and interpersonal communication.

He also supported the involvement of parents and communities in education which he said would have a significant impact on the creation of an active learning environment for children.