EDUCATION
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were made sister schools, and about 20 000 pupils took part in activities sponsored by the scheme.
The Hong Kong Secondary Schools Adoption Scheme was devised jointly by the department and Lions Club International District 303, to encourage links between Hong Kong schools and Lions Club districts around the world. It was launched at the International Lions Club Convention held in Hong Kong in June. The aim is to promote mutual understanding, co-operation, assistance and cultural exchange.
The department also supports inter-school activities in music, speech, drama and sports. In the 1991-2 academic year the music festival organised by the Hong Kong Schools Music and Speech Association attracted 63 900 students from 923 schools, while 52 800 took part in the speech festival. The Schools Drama Festival, organised under the guidance of the School Drama Council, encouraged drama productions involving about 3 200 students from 109 schools. Sporting activities organised by the Hong Kong School Sports Association and the New Territories School Sports Association attracted over 111 200 participants from more than 1 200 schools.
Special Education
The main policy objective of special education is to integrate the disabled into the com- munity through the co-ordinated efforts of the government and voluntary agencies.
Early identification is an important preventive measure. Screening and assessment services identify special educational needs among school age children so that appropriate follow-up and remedial treatment can be given before problems develop into educational handicaps. Under the combined screening programme, all Primary 1 pupils are given hearing and eyesight tests. Teachers are provided with checklists and guides to help them detect children with speech problems and learning difficulties. Children requiring further assessments are given audiological, speech, psychological or educational assessments at special education services centres, or are referred for ophthalmic advice.
Children identified as having special educational needs are as far as possible integrated into ordinary schools. They are placed in special schools only when their handicaps are such that they cannot benefit from the ordinary school programme. There are altogether 62 special schools (including a hospital school) for the blind, deaf, physically handicapped, mentally handicapped, maladjusted, socially deprived and children with learning difficulties. Sixteen schools provide residential places. Apart from teachers, special schools are staffed by specialists such as educational psychologists, therapists and social workers.
Special education classes in ordinary schools cater for partially-sighted or partially- hearing children, or children with learning difficulties. Remedial services for children integrated into ordinary classes include centre-based remedial support outside school hours, a peripatetic teaching service, as well as advice for ordinary teachers on how to cope with handicapped students.
In general, special schools and classes follow the ordinary school curriculum, with adaptations or special syllabuses where appropriate to cater for the varied learning needs of the children. Special attention is given to daily living skills. The CDC's Special Education Co-ordinating Committee, with members from government departments and schools, advises on special educational needs. Special schools also offer extra-curricular activities to enrich the practical life experiences of day and residential pupils.