ENG-1976 — Page 112

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EDUCATION

foundation for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education, the corresponding syllabuses at Forms IV and V levels have also been reviewed and are being revised. Provisional syllabuses for art and design, biology, chemistry, design and technology, economics and physics are being tried out in a limited number of schools in preparation for enter- ing these new courses in the Hong Kong Certificate of Education examination in 1978.

An encouraging development in primary education has been the wider acceptance among school authorities of the activity approach scheme introduced experimentally in 1972 by the Curriculum Development Committee. The aims of this scheme include the development of a less formal approach to learning, in which children proceed at their own pace according to their own abilities. 'Learning by doing' is the keynote of the scheme, the teacher's role being more to guide than to instruct.

For the production of better quality textbooks, the inspectorate's Textbooks Com- mittee is maintaining close liaison with two educational publishers' associations-the Anglo-Chinese Textbook Publishers' Organisation and the Hong Kong Educational Publishers' Association. During the year 349 textbooks were reviewed to examine their suitability for use in schools.

Teaching Centres

The Advisory Inspectorate runs three centres concerned with the teaching of the Chinese language, English and mathematics.

The Chinese Language Teaching Centre aims to improve the teaching of the Chinese language and to raise the general standard of Chinese in secondary and primary schools. In 1976 some 2,000 teachers from more than 1,000 primary and secondary schools attended various courses and seminars conducted by the centre. It has a wide range of teaching materials and aids for serving teachers, and a dubbing service of teaching tapes produced by the centre is provided free of charge for schools. During the year 138 schools benefited from this service.

The English Language Teaching Centre organised 50 refresher courses, work- shops and seminars for 1,014 teachers from 513 schools. Follow-up visits were also made. Some 2,400 recordings of language teaching tapes were supplied to 110 schools and two book exhibitions were held. The specialist library, which contains 3,500 books on English language teaching and linguistics, is frequently visited by lecturers from the colleges of education, the Polytechnic and the Technical Teachers' College, and by teachers and advisory inspectors.

The Mathematics Teaching Centre made considerable efforts in 1976 to assist teachers in the implementation of the new provisional syllabus for mathematics. The centre held 42 seminars, 23 workshops, six in-service courses and six exhibitions. A 16 mm colour film, 25 minutes long and entitled 'Mathematics without Tears', was produced in collaboration with the Educational Television Service. The film aims at promoting the activity approach in the teaching of primary mathematics.

Visual Education Centre

The Advisory Inspectorate's Visual Education Centre provides centralised audio- visual media services for schools free of charge. The centre lends 16 mm films, 35 mm