TNAG-1725-FCO40-2438-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 117

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 20 January 1988

measure the language achievements of the pupils taught by the expatriate teachers; secondly, to assess the effect of the scheme in increasing motivation and interest among the pupils; and thirdly, to assess the contribution made by the expatriate teachers to the general life of the school.

The scheme has been in operation for only five months, so clearly it is still too soon to make any formal assessment of its effectiveness. Despite some rather sensational reports in the press, there have in effect been fewer difficulties than might have been expected. In a few schools there have been problems of class control, but such problems are also encountered by local teachers and discus- sions are held with the schools concerned to find ways to improve the situation. Adaptation to the teaching environment in Hong Kong has been easier for some teachers than for others, but problems are discussed and the teachers are given professional support in a variety of ways.

A British Council team visits each school in the scheme once a month and talks with the principal, the panel chairmen and the teachers. The council has someone available every evening so that teachers can discuss any problems. The council also organises professional support groups in which five or six teachers get together to discuss problems and ideas for new teaching methods. There are workshops for the teachers and up to two weeks of conference during the school holidays. The Education Department and the British Council also organise joint seminars for school principals and panel chairmen. In general these teachers have been warmly welcomed by their local colleagues and are approaching their task enthusiastically. So far the scheme seems to me to be going very well.

DR. HO: Sir, in the teaching of a second 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 commission in its second report recommended that the schools should be given discretion as to how they made use of their extra teachers, either to split classes or in any other way the school principal thought was most effective.

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