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The Government has earmarked funds to provide 330 additional supported employment places and will continue to re-target resources to provide additional supported places as needs arise.

The Government will give urgent consideration to the final report to be received by May from the Director of Social Welfare's working party on training and employment for people with disabilities. Recommendations which are endorsed by the Government will be implemented as rapidly as possible.

A promotional visit will be paid to all major Government departments by the Civil Service Branch and Labour Department. The branch will aim to sit in on at least 50 per cent of recruitment interviews of people with a disability held by Government departments this year. Every effort will be made to meet the voluntary target of 4,000 disabled persons employed in the civil service by March 1996. A further target will be set for March 1997 in a year's time.

End/Thursday, March 2, 1995

Answers to critics of TOC

The Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) is designed to address some of the needs of the education system in Hong Kong, downplaying the role of rote learning and encouraging teachers to bring life, interest and active participation into the classroom, Senior Assistant Director of Education Mr T F Kwan said today (Thursday).

Speaking at a press conference, Mr Kwan said rather than "teaching across-the- board", which resulted in brighter students feeling bored and less bright students frustrated and failing to catch up, TOC advocated adoption of various teaching approaches that would meet the evolving demands of a larger and more diversified group of learners.

"Through careful observations and monitoring of the progress of individual children, teachers are able to discover their strengths and weaknesses and devise appropriate remedial measures at an earlier stage, thus preventing aggravation of the problem," Mr Kwan said.