ENG-1963 — Page 182

EDUCATION

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board. There was a total of 1,371 candidates for the theory examinations. The practical and theory examinations of the Trinity College of Music attracted 38 entries. Examinations for the Royal Academy of Dancing were held by visiting examiners from Britain in February. There were 316 candidates for the Grade (children's) examinations and 27 for the Major examinations; candidates who passed numbered 286 and 17 respectively. The annual conference for music teachers was held during the summer.

Drama. Many plays in both English and Cantonese were per- formed as an extra-curricular activity in schools. Students were also able to see a variety of plays performed by local dramatic societies.

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Art. A 'Save Water' poster competition in May, following last year's successful poster competition on preventing fires, again attracted a large number of entries from 221 schools and fostered great interest in the campaign. For the children's art exhibition at the City Hall in October over 10,000 entries were received from schools, and the final selection of 650 put on display showed the beneficial effects in schools of the work done in the teacher-training colleges. The Education Department art section's picture loan collection continued to circulate in government schools.

EDUCATION CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION

A three-day conference for history teachers and a four-day geography exhibition and workshop took place at the end of July. Both attracted a large number of participants and visitors. A residential conference on the teaching of English as a second language was held at Chung Chi College in August for the second year in succession. The conference was again organized under the chairmanship of Dr B. Hensman, head of the department of English at the college. Amongst those taking part were Mr J. C. Catford, Director of the School of Applied Linguistics, University of Edinburgh, and Mr R. Hemphill, Co-Director of the Philippine Centre for Language Study, Philippines, through the generosity of the British Council and the Asia Foundation respectively.

Lectures were given by visiting and local specialists in English language teaching and discussions were held in groups and in open forum. Delegates attended from Brunei, Canada, Macau,