EDUCATION
Library Newsletter continued to provide a channel of communication for schools on managing, developing and using the library to support the curriculum.
The Chinese Textbooks Committee
To encourage and supplement the use of Chinese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools, the Chinese Textbooks Committee (CTC) was set up to ensure the availability of good quality Chinese textbooks. Under the three phases of an Incentive Award Scheme, 92 sets of textbooks for 32 subjects at S1-7 level were published.
During the year, the CTC implemented another phase of the scheme to produce 43 sets of textbooks for 16 subjects at $1-7 level by the 1998-99 school year. Moreover, it conducted a questionnaire survey on the use of the Chinese textbooks produced in the first three phases of the scheme. Having accomplished its aims, the CTC was dissolved upon the expiry of its term of office on July 31, 1996.
Committee on Home-School Co-operation
The Committee on Home-School Co-operation aims to improve communication between schools and parents. Its members include educators, parents, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) chairpersons and officers of the Education Department. During the year, it followed up the recommendations made in the report of a large-scale survey conducted in 1994 on the perception of home-school relations among various people involved in education. These included a pilot programme to try out effective ways of improving home-school relations. It also organised promotion activities which included seminars, a roving exhibition on drug education and a campaign calling upon parents to show appreciation of teachers' work. A pilot scheme to set up in schools a 24-hour enquiry line for parents was also launched. Furthermore, PTAs were encouraged to form networks in their own districts.
Extra-curricular activities
Extra-curricular activities are an integral part of school life, complementing and enriching formal learning in the classroom. The Education Department provides guidance and advice through in-service teacher education programmes and school inspections, subsidises some activities, and co-ordinates many inter-school programmes and activities. These include the Community Youth Club, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, the Lions' Sister Schools Scheme, the 32nd Schools Dance Festival, the School Dance Exchange '96, the Schools Drama Festival, sports and recreational activities, as well as subject- and interest-based activities.
Special Education
The main policy objective of special education is to integrate the disabled into the community through co-ordinated efforts by the government and non-governmental organisations.
Early identification is an important prevention 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 handicaps. Under the combined screening programme, all Primary One students are given hearing and eyesight tests. Checklists and guides help teachers to detect children with speech problems and learning difficulties. Children requiring further
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