new patterns be developed. The education provided at present in our full secondary schools is dominated by the requirements of the Certifi- cate of Education Examinations and the examinations leading to entrance into the two Universities. In the submissions we have received, this point is stressed again and again. It is relevant to note that entrance to the Universities is restricted to a minority of students. It seems that every effort should be made to minimize the deleterious effects that public examinations have on pupils and their study programmes in secondary schools. The content of the curriculum for Form 6 should be designed in such a way that it would not only prepare students for university entrance but do more in terms of broadening the scope of education for these students and ensuring that their attention is not confined solely to studying school subjects required for examinations. Similarly, it is our recommendation that schools should be guided to recognize that the syllabuses issued by the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Board are intended only to indicate the programme of work that should be completed by students in their fifth year. Every effort should be made to encourage schools not to allow such syllabuses to dictate their teaching/learning processes in the earlier years of secondary school. We consider that the Boards responsible for the conduct of the examinations for university entrance should be asked to bear in mind when framing syllabuses that their overloading will have the effect of frustrating this aim. Similar considerations apply regarding the Certifi- cate of Education Examinations.
14. A number of representations received recommended that the base of courses offered in schools should be broadened. The following statement made by the Grant Schools Council represents these views:
"We would like to see the present Grammar Schools allowed to modify in such a way that the lower form students in both the new and the established schools could follow a curriculum that would be less academic than is the case in the present Grammar Schools. We believe that Government should provide the facilities and the finance to enable our present schools to expose their students to some form of practical learning in a significant way. Our convic- tion is that all students, even those who are academically brilliant and who will ultimately obtain university degrees, would gain a great deal from the experience of being involved with practical subjects, in addition to Music, Art and Physical Education, in the early years of their secondary education."
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