XN000022-1973-12-09 — Page 6

5

Sunday, December 9, 1973

"This is not to deny that the professional educator has genuine

insights into the needs of children, which may not be fully appreciated

by all parents; but it does mean tast we are not in the grip of a

monolithic system dictated by experts of one kind or another.

"For good or ill, public opinion is an effective force in Hong

Kong education, which theorists ignore at their peril," Mr. Board said.

The Assistant Director pointed out that the Education Department's

syllabuses were merely "suggested", and the Certificate of Education

syllabuses were drawn up by subject committees on which the schools were

strongly represented.

It was simply not true as it was sometimes said that there was

little experimentation in Hong Kong schools because they were bound, hand

and foot, by the syllabuses of the Department or the public examination.

Mr. Board said: "My colleagues in the Inspectorate are only too

anxious to consider sympathetically any reasonable proposals by individual

schools; and likewise it is the firm policy of the Board of the Certificate

of Education, which is an independent board, to meet any reasonable request

for new subjects, alternative syllabuses and modes of examination, and the

like."

He added: "Similar principles apply to the Secondary School

Entrance Examination, which is quite rightly kept under constant and careful

scrutiny.

"At this time we are especially concerned to improve it, and in the

Examination Division of the Department we shall be delighted to receive

any suggestions, verbally or in writing, concerned either with the examination

itself or with the associated allocation procedures; and this applies also,

of course, to the Certificate of Education Examination."

/Mr. Board