74
EDUCATION
registered for the 1982–3 JSEA, comprising 56 Chinese middle schools, 354 Anglo-Chinese schools and 11 special schools, with 79 579 pupils participating in the assessment. Of these, 2 238 discontinued schooling before the second internal assessment or failed to submit their choices of school, while 1 096 were admitted into full-time craft courses at Hong Kong's five technical institutes. Over 68 per cent (51 861) of the remaining pupils were allocated Form 4 places in government and aided schools, of which more than 80 per cent (41 716) were allocated back to their own schools.
The Careers Education Section of the Education Department continued to work closely with the Hong Kong Association of Careers Masters and the Labour Department to promote careers education in schools. A Careers Education Centre was set up in April in the Education Department headquarters to provide school leavers with a central source of careers information. A training course for 32 careers teachers was organised in August in conjunction with the Labour Department.
Special Education
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The provision of special education continued to develop in line with the objectives of the White Paper on Rehabilitation published in October 1977 and the subsequent review of the programme plan. A total of 23 727 special places for handicapped children was provided in 1983. At present there are 70 special schools - three for the blind, four for the deaf, 20 for the physically handicapped (including 12 hospital schools), 34 for the mentally handicap- ped, eight for the maladjusted and socially deprived, and one for children with learning difficulties. The boarding sections of 14 special schools subvented by the Education Department also provide a total of 743 residential places.
In addition, there are 109 special and resource classes in 45 ordinary government schools - 60 for children with learning difficulties, eight for the partially sighted, 32 for the partially hearing and nine for the maladjusted. There are also 411 special and resource classes in 283 ordinary aided schools - 402 for children with learning difficulties and nine for the maladjusted. These special and resource classes, and a school for children with learning difficulties, are for the less severely handicapped and include both primary and junior secondary levels (up to Form 3). In addition, 1916 less severely handicapped children are integrated into ordinary classes in government and aided schools.
A notable development in special education has been the reorganisation of special and resource classes for children with learning difficulties, and the integration of maladjusted children into ordinary schools. This was made possible by the introduction of a wider range of remedial services which includes intensive remedial teaching for all basic subjects in revised resource classes in ordinary schools; a peripatetic teaching service in ordinary schools during school hours; remedial support outside school hours in resource teaching centres and adjustment units run by the Special Education Section of the Education Department; and advisory services to schools.
Preventive and follow-up measures in the form of screening, assessment and remedial services identify special educational needs among school-age children and allow remedial action to be taken as early as possible. The remedial services include speech and auditory training, speech therapy, teacher and parent counselling, adjustment groups and resource teaching. During the year, 277 742 cases were dealt with: 250 149 under the combined screening programme (including speech, hearing and vision screening) and the group testing programme for Primary 2 pupils of all primary schools in Hong Kong; and 27 593 cases were given further help in the form of remedial services after audiological speech or psychological assessments.