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The response of the grand strategist of education reform offered better news for Hong Kong - that this was a typical situation and things could only get better. 'This is familiar at a certain stage of the reform process,' he said. This was the implementation dip, when changes had begun but could not work smoothly because those implementing them lacked the skills and experience to do so. With no obvious beneficial outcome, they seemed to be achieving nothing more than 'hard work'.

The government had to do something to alleviate this dip and much of that involved addressing the problems teachers faced, through support and improving the working environment as necessary to motivate them, said Professor Fullan, the former dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.

'My impression is that Hong Kong is a hard-working society - from the sheer amount of work to get things done. But that does not leave much room for innovation and recouping,' he told the South China Morning Post. 'If a strategy does not motivate teachers, or does the opposite - demoralises them - there is no possibility it can work.'

Large numbers of teachers burning out, falling ill or leaving the profession, along with difficulties in recruitment, were indicators that conditions needed to be improved.

The focus of reforms during the 'implementation dip' should not only be on improving teaching and learning, but removing the 'distractions' such as lengthy meetings that were too informational and unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork. 'We have found that the size of the school improvement plan is inversely related to the quality of the action,' he said. It was not hard work that demoralised teachers and drained them of energy, but negative work.

Reforms elsewhere were as ambitious but tended to be more focused - for instance on raising numeracy and literacy standards and giving teachers the skills and support to do this. 'The reform here probably has too many elements to it,' he said.

The solutions for Hong Kong, he said, were fourfold. Educators and policy-makers needed to:

Better understand the nature of the change process;

Look at how schools could best be effective and what they needed to do to build a culture of collaboration;

Examine the role of school leadership;

Review the role of government and the supporting infrastructure.

The EMB, he said, needed to get rid of as much 'clutter and overload' as possible, and prioritise the changes. It should also 'build capacity' to support reforms - by developing leadership skills, a collaborative culture and practices key to change such as assessment for learning.

However, rather than piling on more courses for teachers, much of this professional development should go on within context, involving collaboration within and between schools, and the participation of school leaders to ensure innovations could be implemented. He calls this 'lateral capacity building', a model that is now the focus of his work and is being used in the UK and Ontario and now New Orleans.

'In the UK the government has provided funds for groups of six primary schools to learn from each other. At first, the schools were competitive, and not co-operative. But people have to experience it to believe it. As they experienced the collaboration they found it worthwhile,' he said.

'Where we started 15 years ago was to increase collaboration of teachers within schools,' he said. Greater communication had created what he terms 'professional learning communities'. The lateral capacity building took that further and was a key to wider change as it allowed ideas to flow. 'The other thing is that moral commitment, or moral purpose, increases, while competition decreases as a result of peer interaction and support,' he said.

This capacity-building could be a powerful strategy in Hong Kong but he acknowledged that in the climate of falling enrolment it would be harder, because of the competition to survive among schools. 'Some argue competition is a good model because the best survive. We don't think so. Ideas do not flow and moral purpose is not enhanced,' he said.

Reform worked across three levels, with teams from clusters of schools, district and state working together. 'This is where the future lies. You have neither hierarchy dominating nor autonomous schools dominating.'

Schools could be flexible in how they fulfilled the wider national agenda, such as curriculum and assessment, but their decision-making and effectiveness had to be based on evidence.

'This is important, partly for accountability, and so evidence can be shared with other schools,' he said.

Principals should support collaboration, including finding time for teams to work together without overloading teachers. For instance, some schools in the UK let students arrive late or go home early once a fortnight, or ran special assemblies for the whole school, freeing up groups of teachers.

Success required a different mind-set among principals and teachers. The government, he said, needed to value the role of the principal. 'There should be a big shift at both levels, for those in the role and how government sees principals.' They had to be leaders rather than mere administrators.

While in Hong Kong Professor Fullan ran workshops for 92 education leaders and officials from 11 countries in the Asia Pacific Leading Change Elites Course 2006 Forum, sponsored by Microsoft Hong Kong and part of Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative. He also addressed about 300 local principals and teachers.

Professor Fullan joined Microsoft project because the company wanted to contribute to improving education rather than merely to promote its software, he said.

Technology had many applications in supporting school improvement. The gathering and analysis of data for assessment for learning was one example. 'We think of technology as only a tool and a means to an end - how to use it as an accelerator of change,' he said.

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