DR. HO : Sir, in the teaching of a secondary language it
is essential to give sufficient
attention to individual
students. The present class size of 35 to 40 in secondary
schools does not permit language teachers to give students
sufficient individual attention. Will the Secretary
inform this Council whether the Government has any plans
to reduce the class size to, say, 20 for English teaching?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER
Sir, the Education
Commission's recommendations in their first report
included recommendations for additional teachers for
language teaching, not just for English, which the Commission proposed should be used for splitting classes
in the way suggested by Dr. Ho. Subsequent local research
has, possibly surprisingly, not confirmed that there is
any benefit to be gained from splitting classes. It is
not quite known why this should be and the commission has
recommended that research should continue. But because of
this doubt over whether split classes are in fact
effective, the
that the schools should be given discretion as to how they
made use of their extra teachers, either to split classes
Com
ommission in its second report recommended
or in any other way the school principal thought was
was most
effective.
No comments yet.
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