wishes of the sponsors and the local community. The building of more prevocational schools will increase the number of students who have obtained a good grounding in technical education during their junior secondary years, and the introduction of senior secondary classes into these schools will provide further opportunities for their students to take their technical education to a higher level.
5.10 A broadening of the curriculum will meet the needs of students with a wide range of aptitudes. Moreover, as the expansion programme progresses, new approaches to the teaching of academic subjects within a senior secondary course should be developed to meet the needs of students from the wider ability-range which will then be found within the public sector. It is highly desirable to maintain the present standards of the higher grades (Grades A-E) in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, which are used in the selection of students for entry to the sixth form and to tertiary education and by Government and industry in the selection of new employees. If these grades were to be pitched at lower ability levels, the examination would no longer be challenging to the abler students and overseas recognition might be affected. The problems of examining students from a wide range of ability, whether by separate examinations pitched at different levels or within a common examination, have been considered for several years by the Schools Council in England and Wales and by an advisory committee in Scotland. The Government will ask the Hong Kong Examinations Authority to consider the most suitable arrangements for Hong Kong, having regard to experience in Britain and elsewhere.
5.11 Various improvements will be made to the support facilities and services available in schools. Particular importance will be attached to developing school libraries as resource centres under the direction of teacher-librarians. The audio-visual facilities available in the Visual Education Centre have improved considerably in recent years; this development will continue, in particular by providing for the local production of resource materials such as teaching kits. The Government's main priority in educational television (ETV) in schools will lie in expanding and improving programmes for the junior secondary curriculum. However, ETV programmes may have a limited application to some aspects of the curriculum for senior secondary forms, and some programmes for the senior secondary curriculum will be prepared, though it is not intended that ETV should be used extensively in teaching at that level.
5.12 In order to provide greater impetus to curriculum innovation, the Education Department will, as a pilot project, establish small working teams of teachers, temporarily seconded from their normal teaching duties in aided and Government schools, to prepare model teaching programmes and supporting materials and, through schemes of in-service training, to familiarise teachers with their use.
5.13 A statement about the Government's programme for the development of Music will be made separately.
Teacher training
5.14 The Green Paper proposed to improve the quality of non-graduate teachers by extending the pre-service training course to three years, by seeking a higher educational standard among applicants and by introducing a systematic programme of refresher training for serving teachers. Account must also be taken of other objectives, in particular ensuring a regular supply of trained teachers to meet teaching vacancies as they arise and providing basic training for untrained serving teachers.
5.15 After giving further consideration to these proposals in the course of a review of teacher training, the Government has concluded that a three-year course of teacher training may not be necessary for students who have already obtained a good standard of general education.
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