TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 359

!

9.

Deputy Chief Inspector is chairman of the CDC Textbooks Committee.

Schools to be inspected are normally selected at the discretion of

senior staff (though school authorities occasionally request inspection

themselves and these requests are always met). Inspections are usually

carried out on a subject basis, the number of inspectors engaged

varying according to the size of the school. During their visits the

inspectors observe a cross-section of lessons, examine syllabuses,

textbooks and other resource materials, and hold discussions with the

panel chairman and his staff on such matters as subject organisation,

time allocation, deployment and management of staff, allocation of

resources, and subject co-ordination, etc. This is seen as a form of

in-service training since during the course of the discussions the

inspectors are able to suggest ideas, based largely on their observations

in other schools and perhaps more important receive suggestions and

ideas which can be passed on to other teachers. The purpose is to be as

constructive and helpful as possible, not to find fault. A written

report is normally forwarded to the school in due course (copied to the

appropriate district officer in the Schools Division) and wherever time

permits a follow-up visit is arranged, usually about a year later, thus

allowing time for the school to implement any recommended changes.

Inspectors have no powers to dismiss teachers or recommend dismissal: if

a teacher's performance has marked shortcomings they can only bring this

to the attention of the school principal or supervisor and inform the

Schools Division.

7.11

-

-

In-service training is provided by the Advisory Inspectorate

both on a regular and an occasional basis. Regular courses are provided

by the various teaching centres (in languages, mathematics, science,

social subjects and the cultural crafts) and are well attended. As yet,

efforts by the Education Department to establish a teachers' centre

(based on the Advisory Inspectorate) have been unsuccessful in competition