ENG-1974 — Page 108

EDUCATION

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During 1974, a total of 1,346 teachers, student-teacher and training officers attended various courses and workshops, and participated in visits organised by the Visual Education Centre.

Teachers and Teacher Education

In March 1974 there were 36,221 full-time and part-time teachers employed in government and registered day schools-7,877 university graduates and 17,699 non-graduates qualified for teaching. Other teachers were engaged in tutorial, evening and special afternoon classes, and 213 were in special schools. At the end of the 1973-4 school year, the ratio of pupils to teachers in primary day schools was 32.8, and 29.2 in secondary day schools.

Apart from technical teacher training, teacher education is provided at the Education Department's three colleges of education--Grantham, Northcote and Sir Robert Black. All three colleges offer full-time two-year courses designed to produce non-graduate teachers qualified for primary schools and lower forms of secondary schools. Third-year courses for specialist teachers are offered to prepare non-graduate teachers as specialists in art or physical education (at Grantham), domestic science or mathematics (at Northcote) and music (at Sir Robert Black) for higher forms in secondary schools.

The colleges also provide in-service courses of training for unqualified teachers. These are part-time two-year evening courses, in either Chinese or English, leading to qualified teacher status. The number of students attending these courses has been considerably increased since September 1972 to cope with the demand for additional trained teachers.

In September 1974 there were 1,409 students in the two-year courses, 81 in the specialist third-year course, and 1,816 trainees in the in-service training courses.

New premises at Pipers Hill for the Sir Robert Black College of Education were completed in mid-1974 and the college opened in September at the new location. The previous premises in Hung Hom are now an annex to Grantham College of Education in which are provided both full-time and in-service courses for the educa- tion of teachers. The multi-purpose games hall and a new four-storey wing for Grantham College of Education were also completed and opened during the year. Northcote College of Education in Bonham Road has been refurnished and all the in-service courses are now centred there, while the full-time course remains at the Sassoon Road premises.

In September, the new Technical Teachers' College was established in temporary premises. A principal was recruited from Britain and took up his post in May. Until then, technical teacher training had been carried out by a department of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute, but demand for technical teachers has expanded sufficiently to justify the establishment of a separate college for this purpose. The college prepares teachers for technical institutes, secondary schools and prevocational schools.

The student teachers preparing for technical institutes and, in many cases, for prevocational schools, are mature persons holding suitable technical qualifications