ENG-1976 — Page 98

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EDUCATION

Department and the Social Welfare Department. This was the school social work scheme, through which school social welfare workers aimed to give assistance and guidance to pupils who were found to have learning, emotional and other problems arising from home circumstances.

The great majority of primary schools use Chinese as the language of instruction, with English being taught as a second language. For children whose first language is English, provision is made in 10 junior schools-five operated by the government, three by the English Schools Foundation (a government-subvented organisation), and two by private bodies.

Special Education

Further progress in the development of special education in 1976 included in- creased provision of places, more assessment and remedial services, and expanded teacher training programmes.

The number of special places for handicapped children increased during the year 1975-6 from 8,500 to 11,725. There are now 35 special schools-two for the blind, four for the deaf, seven for the maladjusted and socially deprivēd, 17 for the physically handicapped, and five for the slow learning. In addition, in ordinary government schools, there are 109 special classes for the slow learning, 24 classes for the partially hearing, five classes for the partially sighted, and 18 classes for the maladjusted. In ordinary aided schools there are 114 special classes for the slow learning and 18 special classes for the maladjusted. More than 520 less severely physically handicapped children have been placed in ordinary classes in government and aided schools. The progress of these children is supervised by officers of the Education Department's special education section.

Through this section, preventive measures are being extended by providing more assessment and remedial services. Assessment services include audiological testing, psychological testing, speech testing and educational assessment. Audiometric, vision and speech screening programmes are carried out in primary schools. Remedial services include auditory training, speech therapy, adjustment groups, and teacher and parent counselling. During the year the two special education services centres- one on Hong Kong Island and the other in Kowloon-dealt with more than 55,800 children.

The programme of overseas training for the nucleus of specialist staff in the special education section has also been expanded, as have the local in-service courses for teachers in special schools and special classes, and the courses on the needs of handicapped children for teachers in ordinary schools and for trainee-teachers at the three colleges of education. In addition, teachers in ordinary schools were in 1976 also offered five introductory courses on the education of handicapped children, two workshops, one seminar and one extra-mural course.

The special education section has a braille printing press operated by the Government Printer. This press produces primary Chinese textbooks and supplemen- tary readers in braille, which are supplied to schools for the blind under government subsidy at one tenth of the actual cost.