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EDUCATION
The Cultural Crafts Centre, in addition to co-ordinating activities for the promotion of practical/technical subjects, provides opportunities for teachers in art and design, art and craft and home economics to update their professional knowledge. In 1985, about 3 000 teachers attended various retraining programmes and about 30 000 visitors were attracted to the exhibitions organised by the centre.
Visual Education
The Visual Education Section makes available through its Audio Visual Resources Library a wide range of audio-visual aids for free loan to schools. The stocks include 16mm films, video-cassette tapes, filmstrips, sets of slides and transparencies, filmloops, learning packages and cassette tapes. The section's Media Production Services Unit in Canton Road is open seven days a week to assist teachers in the production of teaching aids. The facilities of the unit include photographic, reprographic, graphic, model making, tape duplicating, booklet binding, picture preservation and screen printing equipment and a microcomputer system. During the year, 6 000 teachers utilised the facilities of the unit, and 3 000 teachers attended over 130 courses and workshops on the production of audio-visual materials.
Physical Education
The Physical Education Section is responsible for the improvement of teaching standards in physical education in schools and the promotion of school sports and dance. In 1985, some 75 courses and seminars in physical education were conducted for over 4 000 teachers, including seven seminars organised to familiarise primary school teachers with the revised syllabus in Physical Education.
In January, the 21st Schools Dance Festival attracted 3 800 participants from over 260 schools. Ninety-six students were selected from the previous festival to perform a Chinese classical dance at the ceremony marking the opening of International Youth Year.
The section continued to administer the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club Fund for the Summer Youth Programme for schools, through which some 170 000 students from 527 primary and secondary schools benefitted. Canton joined the Annual Hong Kong - Macau Schools Interport Sports Competitions. In the Peking, Canton, Hong Kong and Macau Schools Inter-city Invitational Basketball Tournament, Hong Kong was the champion in the boys' division. Throughout the year, 128 courses in various sections of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme were conducted for 150 member schools in the scheme.
Music Education
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Fifteen courses and workshops were organised for music teachers in secondary and primary schools and these attracted over 1300 participants. Opportunities for further study in music at senior secondary level were enhanced with expansion of the Centralised Scheme of Music Training to include an Advanced Level course. This is in line with the introduc- tion of a local Advanced Level syllabus which will be examined for the first time in 1987. The 37th Annual Schools Music Festival organised by the Hong Kong Schools Music and Speech Association attracted more than 6 600 entries involving over 65 000 pupils.
Technical and Commercial Education
During the year, technical subjects, as part of the general curriculum in secondary schools, continued to expand at both Form 1-3 and Form 4-5 levels. Several new technical subjects were developed for prevocational schools. A full programme of in-service courses for technical teachers was organised, including one on Material Science.
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