TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 12

in class sizes ranging from over the legal maximum of 45 in some schools to a class size of less than ten in remote village schools. The drop in primary enrolment in recent years has also had an effect on class size. class size in September 1979 was:

The average

Government Schools Aided Schools Private Schools

37

36

41

All Schools

37

INTERFACE BETWEEN KINDERGARTEN, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

1.25

Ideally each level of education should dovetail smoothly into the next stage although each has its own particular purpose and flavour, and the recommended curricula are designed with this in mind.

1.26

Kindergartens should help a child to adapt to a social environment and develop basic skills. At the primary level where children are introduced to simple problem solving and thinking for themselves, among other things an acceptable degree of numeracy and literacy is aimed for, simple social and scientific ideas are studied on a fairly superficial level and simple practical skills are developed. At the secondary level, studies are more rigidly classified into subject disciplines and both academic and practical subjects are studied at considerable depth.

1.27

In practice, problems relating to the interface between these major levels of education distort the functions of each level in the classes close to that interface.

1.28

The effect of competition to enter a school at the next level with a reputation for a high 'success' rate has already been mentioned. Apart from the stress it causes, this has a marked effect on the curriculum. At the kindergarten level, instead of simply developing basic skills, the schools tend to concentrate on academic skills in Chinese, Arithmetic and even English. The result is that at the lower primary level, schools are faced with trying to teach children with a very wide range of experiences, some of which may have been educationally harmful. At the upper primary level, unnecessary preparation for the Academic Aptitude Test, together with preparation for school internal assessment tests on which the educational future of the pupils depends, again distort both the content and style of teaching.

1.29

However, it is in the field of English that the interface really breaks down. Due to parental preference the vast majority of secondary schools aim to teach in the medium of English in Form I and one of the targets of the English curriculum at the primary level is to prepare students for this change of language of instruction. Unfortunately, this has not proved successful. Most primary schools are unable to produce pupils truly capable of learning in the medium of English and this has serious consequences at the lower secondary level.

LO

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