Travel times to be cut to ensure mainland study time
Education secretary Christine Choi on Saturday said measures are in place to ensure that pupils going on mainland study trips won't spend too much time travelling, and they have sufficient time to learn once they reach their destination.  In the next academic year, there will be a choice of 26 itineraries for the compulsory mainland tours required for the Citizenship and Social Development subject.  Day trips have been reduced from eight to three, while the remainder mostly last two-to-five days.   Choi told an RTHK programme that officials want the time that pupils spend on the mainland to be worthwhile.  "We really hope students can make good use of the study trips to learn about the latest developments in the country. Commuting time is a major concern, as it takes two hours for buses to travel from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. So we hope to strictly control the transportation time for one-day trips, and limit it to less than two to three hours," she said.  Choi added that trips on high-speed rail will be arranged for students travelling to Guangzhou, from Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, to shorten commute time.  Meanwhile, the minister urged school-sponsoring bodies to consider merging primary schools to integrate resources, adding that the declining student population is a structural problem.