38.
39.
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41.
As soon as there are sufficient places in Junior Secondary Schools for all children to be accommodated on a bi-sessional basis the continuing building programme will reduce pressure on accommodation. At this juncture schools should change to single session working, starting with the existing Government and aided secondary schools.
As the provision of Junior Secondary Schools proceeded, some of the existing secondary schools should probably be converted into Senior Second- ary Schools only, taking the students of Junior Secondary Schools into their Form IV. This would provide for a fuller use of the expensive equipment housed in some schools.
It is not thought, however, that there is a necessity for absolute uniformity. Some schools could combine both Junior and Senior Secondary, others could simply be one or the other.
Eventually entry into Form IV of Senior Secondary Schools should be based partly on the results of the junior certificate of education. It is hoped, however, that the testing of students within their own schools, at present organised by the Research, Testing and Guidance Unit in primary schools, might be extended to Junior Secondary Schools to provide much fuller information on the abilities of students and to enable the most suitable to be offered places in Senior Secondary Schools. This procedure would do away with much of the damaging effect of a selection examination which is criticized at present.
THE JUNIOR SECONDARY COURSE
42.
43.
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46.
It is considered important that the courses should be complete in themselves and not merely a half-way stage to the present Certificate of Education.
However, the courses provided should bear a similar relationship to the Fifth Year Certificate of Education as that present Certificate bears to the "Advanced" level examination. That is to say that the courses should be both a suitable preparation for the more senior work and a suitable training for those who leave school without further education.
There should be flexibility over the principal language of instruction, but the syllabuses followed should be the same whether teaching were in English or in Chinese.
A wide variety of cultural and practical subjects should be included in the syllabus of every school.
It is suggested that the following might be a reasonable division of teaching time:-
English and Chinese Mathematics and Science
35%
20%
Humanities and Cultural
subjects
20%
Practical subjects
20%
Physical education
5%
32
THE JUNIOR CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION EXAMINATION
47.
48.
An examination at the end of the three year junior secondary course will be necessary if the course is to be accepted as an entity in itself.
The examination should be of the subject-based rather than the group- based type: that is it should be a certificate of education recording achievement in individual subjects examined, rather than a school certifi- cate testifying to a fixed level of achievement in a variety of groups of subjects.
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