EDUCATION
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Education Section of the Education Department. Of these, 260 788 primary school children underwent group testing and screening programmes which included vision, audiometric and speech screening. Assessment and remedial services - including audiological, speech and psychological assessments, adjustment groups, teacher and parent counselling, speech and auditory training, and speech therapy - were also expanded substantially. As a result of these assessments, 29 747 children were given further help by the Education Department's special education services centres.
The expansion of special education has necessitated an increased effort in the training of specialist staff. Overseas training is provided for the specialist staff of the Special Education Section and local in-service courses are run for teachers in special schools and classes. During 1982, five in-service training courses were run by the Special Education Section for teachers of handicapped children. They included courses for teachers of the blind and partially-sighted, the deaf and partially-hearing, the physically handicapped, the maladjusted and socially deprived, and for teachers who assist in speech therapy work. A total of 104 teachers enrolled in the various courses during the year.
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Up to 1981, the operation of these courses for teachers of all types of handicapped children had been the responsibility of the Special Education Section of the Education Department. To improve the quality of training provided, the Sir Robert Black College of Education in September 1981 started to assume responsibility for running the courses, initially for teachers of children with learning difficulties and mentally handicapped children. The bulk of the transfer process was completed in September 1982 when the college started to run the other courses for teachers of the blind and the partially-sighted, the deaf and the partially-hearing, the physically handicapped, the maladjusted and the socially deprived. The Special Education Section continued to organise short courses, seminars and workshops for teachers in ordinary schools and for trainee-teachers at colleges of education. The responsibility of subventing boarding care and transport facilities in some special schools was transferred from the Social Welfare Department and the Medical and Health Department to the Education Department in October 1981, with the boarding sections of 14 special schools taken over by the Education Department for subvention purposes.
Vocational Training Council
The Vocational Training Council was established as a statutory body in February under the Vocational Training Council Ordinance. It took over the advisory functions of the former Hong Kong Training Council and was granted various executive functions. The objectives of the council are to advise the Governor on the measures required to ensure a comprehensive system of technical education and industrial training suited to the developing needs of Hong Kong; to institute, develop and operate schemes for training operatives, craftsmen, technicians and technologists required to maintain and improve Hong Kong's industry, commerce and services; and to establish, operate and maintain technical institutes and industrial training centres.
To support the work of the council, the government established in April a new Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training as the council's executive arm. This was formed by the merger of the Technical Education Division of the Education Department and the Industrial Training and Apprenticeship Divisions of the Labour Department. Most of the officers in the department work directly to the council through its executive director, who is also the head of the department.
On the council's recommendation, the Governor also established 19 training boards and six general committees. The training boards cover the major economic sectors: accountancy;