MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese): In the main replythe Secretary said that there is a general requirement in the lesson time forPE at the primary and junior secondary levels in that schools are required toallocate around 5%to 8% of the total lesson time for PE.As we all know, underthe "3-3-4" academic structure, senior secondary students are veryserious and concerned about their public examination and it follows that theythink of doing exercises even less. Such being the case, we are more concernedthat the physical quality of senior secondary students may even pale incomparison with that of primary and junior secondary students. My question is:Will the Government, in the light of the current situation, consider includingin the senior secondary curriculum a requirement on the total lesson time forPE, so that the students can have time for exercising more regularly?

SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION (in Cantonese):President, I thank theMember for his question. We have considered this arrangement before. Withregard to the benchmark that I mentioned earlier, schools are required toallocate at least 5% or 80minutes of the total lesson time for PE lessons atthe senior secondary level. But with the implementation of individualcurriculum reforms, such as the reduction of the contents of individualcurricula, or deferred implementation of school-based assessment or reductionof its proportion, we hope to leave more room for other activities as far aspossible and allow schools to make these arrangements with flexibility. In thisconnection, Irish to emphasize once again that80 minutes are only the minimumrequirement. Very often, we can see that in schools and especially as we cansee more often recently, senior secondary students have taken part in cyclingor other activities a lot more often. I believe Members have seen this duringweekends. They have also attended training courses after school, which isactually another way to encourage their participation in this regard.