number of the posts in the primary Advisory Inspectorate should be of graduate status, to be filled either by teachers with primary experience who have subsequently taken a degree, or by the promotion of non-graduate officers after suitable training to bring them to degree equivalence. It is suggested that between 10-20% of primary Inspectors should be graduates. Assuming 15% this proposal would eventually cost about an additional $168,000 per annum.
11.22 The Advisory Inspectorate is closely involved in curriculum develop- ment.
One of the complaints currently made about curriculum development is that it is imposed on schools rather than being evolved by school teachers. Although in practice teachers sit on all Curriculum Development Committees, this is perhaps not a sufficient involvement and it is therefore proposed to set up small teams of teachers temporarily released from teaching duties to work on various aspects of curriculum development. Supply teachers would be needed to replace those concerned. Since a team of about 6 teachers could effectively tackle a given subject area and since it is not proposed to work on different areas simultaneously, the cost would be that involved in providing 6 supply teachers continuously at a total cost of about $220,000 per annum.
Staff to carry out teacher training
11.23
The courses in teacher training provided by the Colleges of Education were considered in the recent White Paper on Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education and will not therefore be dealt with in detail here. However, the proposals made in this Green Paper will produce requirements for additional teacher trainers at the Colleges as well as in the Advisory Inspectorate and these have been included in the costing of the individual proposals. Since some of the teacher training to be carried out in the Colleges and the Advisory Inspectorate is in relatively new fields for Hong Kong, it may be necessary for overseas experts to be recruited in order to train the teacher trainers in new techniques. As an alternative, a number of Hong Kong staff could be sent on specialist overseas courses. Whichever method is finally adopted there are implications both in terms of staff and in terms of costs.
The Audio-Visual Aids Centres
11.24
Mention has already been made in paragraph 4.47 of the Media Production Services Centre in Kowloon. The main services offered by this centre are facilities to enable teachers to make photographic slides, produce charts, copy pictures, make polystyrene models and produce many other useful teaching aids. The centre has proved popular with teachers and the service now needs to be extended to cover Hong Kong Island and as soon as possible the New Territories. To set up a new centre will require staff, equipment and accommodation suitably adapted to provide working space. The cost of converting and equipping part of the Advisory Inspectorate Teaching Centre in North Point, to provide this service for Hong Kong Island is estimated to be about $0.36 million and the subsequent recurrent cost about $0.20 million.
11.25
The Audio-Visual Aids centre in the Education Department has a 15 mm film library service, as well as a filmstrip and slide library. It is currently dubbing films with Cantonese sound tracks. It also has equipment available for loan to schools and produces slides and other visual aids for sale or loan to schools. The implementation of the proposals for additional equipment to support the curriculum contained in Chapter 4 will require the technical support and advisory services of this centre.
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