TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 357

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Planning and Development Branch.

It

The Advisory Inspectorate is headed

by the Assistant Director of Education (Chief Inspector of Schools),

assisted by the Deputy Chief Inspector and a team of Principal Inspectors

(who are the Director's chief professional advisers on specific subjects

of the curriculum or groups of related subjects). This team also

includes the Principal Curriculum Planning Officers (one each for

primary and secondary education). Inspectors, like college lecturers,

are civil servants and have responsibilities for all types of school

by virtue of their gazetted authority under the Education Ordinance.

seems likely that the original concept of an inspector as embodied in the

present and previous Ordinances was that of an official appointed to

ensure that school managements fulfilled their legal obligations, rather

than the modern concept of a curriculum adviser. (This administrative

function is in fact carried out not by the Advisory Inspectorate but by

officers of the Schools Division who, although graded as education

officers (administration) or education assistants, are gazetted as

Inspectors of Schools in order to acquire the necessary legal authority

under the Ordinance.) As already noted, government schools, colleges

and institutes are exempt from the Ordinance, but because the Advisory

Inspectorate's functions have developed along entirely professional lines,

their field of operation covers the government sector as well as all

schools registered under the Ordinance. Thus, the educational standards

achieved by the government sector (save for those implicit in public

examination results) are evaluated entirely from within that sector: the

lack of an independent inspectorate is seen by some as a weakness.

should however be noted that the government sector is relatively small,

containing less than 5 per cent of the total school enrolment.

7.9

It

The Advisory Inspectorate is literally an advisory body and

does not exercise any powers of enforcement in curriculum matters (except

in cases where the safety of pupils or the suitability of educational