Date: 05/06/2007
The launching ceremony of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrolment in Deaf Education Programme took place on 5 June 2007 at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley Clubhouse. This ceremony marked the end of a successful first year (beginning in August 2006) of the seven-year programme. Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Professor Lawrence Lau, vice-chancellor of CUHK, Mrs Siu-man Yu-Law, principal education officer, school administration and support, Education and Manpower Bureau, HKSAR and Dr Catherine Lam, consultant paediatrician at the central Kowloon child assessment Centre, officiated at the ceremony. Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges expressed his enthusiasm at seeing both hearing and deaf students in attendance using both spoken and signed language.
Although the programme has only been running in the kindergarten for less than a year, deaf students’ oral language and literacy skills have shown significant improvement as a result of the enriched language environment and the support of the speech therapists.
