ENG-1970 — Page 115

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EDUCATION

co-ordinate the work of advisory inspectors. The Chief Inspector, with the assistance of a Senior Education Officer, is also responsible for the Research, Testing and Guidance Centre. The centre, estab- lished in 1965, continued to provide locally-constructed tests of attainment in Mathematics, Chinese Language and English Language and administered them to Primary 3-Primary 6 pupils. The service has been extended to cover some 350 primary schools with more than 150,000 pupils participating. The test results provide cumula- tive information for the educational guidance of pupils and valuable data on the effectiveness of courses and syllabuses.

A number of Research Projects have been undertaken. Among these is a study of the written Chinese vocabulary of primary school children, and a survey of the amount of homework set in primary and secondary schools.

Also under the supervision of the Advisory Inspectorate is the English Language Teaching Centre. The centre, which was first established in 1965, has a peripatetic sub-unit in Kowloon and during 1970 was mainly concerned with the provision of refresher courses for teachers and the production of teaching materials, especially tapes to improve spoken English.

VISUAL EDUCATION CENTRE

The Audio-Visual Education Centre of the Education Department provides on loan to all schools a large range of audio-visual materials. The centre, whose facilities are extensively used by teachers, houses a wide range of modern equipment as well as darkroom and photo- graphic facilities.

During the year slide sets and photographs on topics of interest to schools were produced. The centre also published its quarterly news bulletins in English and Chinese which contained information about additions to the film library as well as reviews of new equip- ment and materials. An exhibition of andio-visual aids made by teachers was held in July. Over 1,400 people attended the three-day exhibition.

TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATION

In March there were 33,656 full-time and part-time teachers employed in government and registered day schools, of whom 7,926