| “Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006” International Report briefing in Hong Kong |
| PIRLS stands for Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which is a global study covering 45 countries and areas. Through this study Hong Kong was compared with the other places in order to see how Hong Kong students perform internationally with their peers and tracks their literary performance according to previous PIRLS studies. |
| The study showed the comparative strengths and weaknesses of Hong Kong students, characteristics and performance of primary four students when compared to other students in the same age category from the rest of the world, as well as changes since the last PIRLS was conducted in 2001. Also examined in the study were factors that affect performance, including home reading environment, availability of home educational resources, students’ habit of watching television, reading attitudes etc. |
| The chief researcher for the international report briefing in Hong Kong was HKU Professor SK Tse. Professor Tse, along with HKU researchers Mr. WY Lam, Dr KY Law, and Dr WM Cheung jointly gave the presentation of the findings to media representatives, the general public, and other scholars on 29 November, 2007 at LG06 of Hui Oi Chow Science Building at Hong Kong University. |
| The PIRLS 2006 showed an interesting comparison and difference in the students’ performance over time. It was conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Government sponsored the Hong Kong part of the PIRLS study. Countries and places which participated include, for example, Singapore, Taipei, Indonesia, Canada, USA, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Luxemburg, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Israel, Iceland, New Zealand, Kuwait, Iran, South Africa, Norway and Sweden. |
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| The investigators of PIRLS (from left to right): Mr. Joseph Lam, Prof. Tse Shek Kam (Principal Investigator), Dr. Loh Ka Yee and Dr. Cheung Wai Ming |
| Press release – HKSAR Government: International study shows Hong Kong students improving by leaps and bounds in reading literacy |
| http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/200711/29/P200711290121.htm |
