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EDUCATION
The section continued to administer the annual Summer Youth Programme for Schools. With funds totalling $4 million, including a government grant and a subvention of $1,280,000 from the Jockey Club, the Summer Youth Programme attracted nearly 312 000 students and teachers who took part in more than 2 850 events.
To promote and develop sports within Hong Kong Schools, the Hong Kong Schools Sports Council continued to organise Interport and Jing Ying Competitions in various spots. Several training schemes were also conducted to identify and develop potential athletes in schools.
For the first time, the Hong Kong Schools Sports Council hosted the 17th Asian Schools Football Tournament, in which 12 Asian teams took part.
The number of school user units in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, for which the Education Department is the operating authority, increased to 165, with 24 156 students enrolled as members. Over 120 courses at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels were conducted to meet the increasing demand from user units.
The under-twelve Hong Kong Schools football team took third place in the 4th Boys Invitational Soccer Tournament hosted by Hong Kong in April, and took part in an invitational tournament in Guangzhou in July.
The Hong Kong Schools basketball teams went to the Philippines in August for a series of friendly matches as part of the basketball development scheme.
Six students were selected to represent Hong Kong in the Olympic youth camp held in Seoul, Korea in September.
Music Education
Special features of the 1988 in-service music training programme included seminars on the new general music syllabus for Secondary 4 and 5 and the revised primary music syllabus, as well as a workshop on 'Composing and Improvising in the Classroom'. A total of 16 in-service training courses, workshops and seminars were attended by over 1 300 music teachers in secondary and primary schools.
Demand continued to increase for places in the Centralised Scheme of Music Training, which provides opportunities for further study of music at senior secondary level. Students of the scheme obtained very good results in public examinations.
The Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, attracted 7 261 entries involving over 63 000 pupils competing in 289 classes. The festival ended with a series of seven prize-winners concerts.
Technical and Commercial Education
There was continued expansion of technical and commercial education in the secondary school curriculum. Several new syllabuses, for example, Silversmithing and Jewellery, were drafted and well received by prevocational schools. Some existing syllabuses such as Office Practice, Metalwork and Electrical Studies were revised. The English-Chinese Glossary of terms commonly used in teaching technical and commercial subjects was also revised. Chinese textbooks for Design and Technology, Commerce and Principles of Accounts were written under the Chinese Textbook Award Scheme.
Thirty-six in-service courses were organised at the Technical Teaching Centre following its official opening in November 1987. There was good response to these courses from serving technical teachers.
For the first time, the Governor's Award was introduced into the Hong Kong Young Designer of the Year Award Scheme, jointly organised by the Education Department and