ENG-1978 — Page 111

EDUCATION

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bodies such as the various local examination authorities, other government depart- ments, the British Council and the Consumer Council.

In 1978, a three-year trial period for implementing and evaluating a set of pro- visional syllabuses for junior secondary forms was completed. The feedback has been very satisfactory and, after careful review by the Curriculum Development Committee (CDC), the syllabuses have been modified accordingly. Courses, con- ferences, seminars and workshops are being organised regularly for primary and secondary teachers to introduce, consolidate and evaluate new curricula and approaches. CDC journals, newsletters, bulletins and pamphlets have been published for distribution to schools to keep teachers abreast of new developments in various subject areas.

An encouraging development in primary education has been the wider acceptance among school authorities of an activity approach scheme aimed at bringing about a less formal approach to learning. 'Learning by doing' is the keynote of the scheme and children are given the opportunity to proceed at their own pace and according to their own abilities. During the year, special courses, seminars and workshops were organised for teachers implementing the approach.

The inspectorate's Textbooks Committee continues to give positive guidance to schools on the selection of books. A comprehensive list of recommended textbooks for kindergartens, primary and secondary schools is updated and issued twice a year - in May and November - to schools for information and guidance. In an effort to improve the quality of textbooks, the Textbooks Committee maintains close liaison with two educational publishers' associations - the Anglo-Chinese Textbooks Publishers' Organisation Limited and the Hong Kong Educational Publishers' Association Limited.

Teaching Centres

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

The Chinese Language Teaching Centre continues to work towards improving teaching methods and promoting the general standard of Chinese in secondary and primary schools. During the year, 60 courses, seminars and workshops attended by 2,100 teachers were conducted in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. A number of inter-school competitions were organised to encourage schools to place greater emphasis on speech training and to support extra-curricular activities in connection with Chinese-language teaching. Teachers showed keen interest in the centre's permanent display of teaching materials, aids and projects. Many schools, both primary and secondary, benefited from the free dubbing service for teaching tapes offered by the centre.

The English Language Teaching Centre organised 19 intensive courses on methodology or speech improvement, as well as 13 workshops and five special seminars for 1,547 teachers. Some 420 follow-up visits were made. More than 3,000 language tapes were supplied to 190 schools and two exhibitions featuring aids to English were held. A specialist library, which contains 4,500 books on English- language teaching and linguistics, and an English teaching materials display room