Co-organized by the Education Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the Committee on Respect Our Teachers Campaign, the event was a combination of the Commendation Certificate Presentation Ceremony and Teachers' Day Celebration, used to be held in February and September yearly, to promote the awareness of respecting teachers in the community.

With a variety of celebration activities, the Salute to Teachers 2002 was attended by more than 2,000 representatives in the education profession.

Officiating at the ceremony, Arthur K C Li, secretary for Education and Manpower, said that Teachers' Day was a day to pay tribute to good teachers.

Professor Li believed that with students, parents and school sponsoring bodies jointly extending admiration and appreciation to good teachers on Teachers' Day, teachers' morale would be boosted and students would, in turn, benefit from their better care and inspiration.

Li invited teachers to express their opinions and join forces with the government for the betterment of education in Hong Kong.

Under the Seventh Teacher Commendation Scheme, primary and secondary schools as well as kindergartens could each nominate two teachers to receive commendation for their outstanding professional performance.

A total of 1,663 teachers were commended this year, with nine of them for the seventh straight year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2002)