EDUCATION
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secondary levels. In 1985, the provisional Putonghua syllabus for Primary 4–6 was issued and revised new syllabuses for Primary Mathematics and Principles of Accounts and Social Studies at senior secondary level were implemented. While work continued on the strengthening of sex education and moral education, comprehensive guidelines on civic education were also issued to schools for the first time. The year also saw a further expansion of the Activity Approach in primary schools and of the Computer Studies Scheme at secondary level. The Textbooks Committee continued to give guidance to schools in the selection of textbooks through the publication of recommended textbook lists and also maintained close contact with publishers of educational material.
Teaching Centres
The Advisory Inspectorate runs six teaching centres in connection with the teaching of Chinese, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Subjects and Cultural Crafts. A Field Studies Centre is open to sixth form students and teachers.
During the year, the Chinese Language Teaching Centre conducted 40 refresher courses, workshops and seminars for over 2 300 teachers in primary and secondary schools. Four courses and seminars on Putonghua teaching were also conducted for nearly 300 teachers. Two periodic displays on special topics were organised and attracted some 900 teachers. Both primary and secondary schools benefitted from the centre's free dubbing service and over 1 460 teaching tapes were made during the year.
The English Language Teaching Centre organised a total of 65 seminars, workshops and talks for over 2 200 participants. As well as providing schools with a free tape-dubbing service, the centre has a tape library containing about 920 English language tapes for teachers' use as listening materials in the Wirefree Induction Loop System. The centre's reference library, which is open to teachers, has a stock of over 6 700 books and a variety of journals on English language teaching and linguistics.
The Mathematics Teaching Centres provide in-service training venues and resource centres for mathematics teachers. Twenty-three seminars, courses and workshops were conducted for mathematics teachers in primary and secondary schools. More than 2 200 teachers visited the centre for in-service training, viewed the display of teaching aids and obtained information on resource materials.
The Science Teaching Centre was used extensively for conducting refresher courses, seminars, workshops and teachers' meetings. More than 3 200 primary and secondary school science teachers and laboratory technicians visited the centre for courses and meetings and saw the display of new science equipment, teaching materials and science projects. A new science laboratory was established at the centre in February to provide teachers with facilities to try out science experiments in relation to curriculum development, making apparatus at home, and doing practical work during science workshops.
The Social Subjects Teaching Centre is a training venue and resource centre for teachers of various social subjects such as Economics and Public Affairs, Economics, Geography, Health Education, History, and Social Studies at both primary and secondary levels. Various teaching resources and audio-visual equipment relating to these subjects were on display. Over 25 courses or seminars with more than 1 500 participants from primary and secondary schools were conducted at the centre.
The Field Studies Centre, within the campus of the Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre, continued to serve as an educational and resource centre for ecology and geography studies. During the year, 32 residential ecology and geography courses were organised for nearly 1 500 sixth formers.