ENG-1984 — Page 161

EDUCATION

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Two-year part-time in-service courses of training for teachers of children with special educational needs were operated by the Sir Robert Black College of Education. Altogether, 460 places were available for serving teachers in special schools and special education classes. Different courses were run to cater for teachers of the visually handicapped, the hearing impaired, the physically handicapped, the maladjusted, the mentally handicapped and children with learning difficulties, and for teachers who assist in speech therapy work. Short courses, seminars and workshops for teachers of students with special educational needs in ordinary schools and for trainee teachers at Colleges of Education, as well as refresher courses for teachers in special schools and special education classes, were conducted by the Special Education Section.

The earmould laboratory, established in June 1983 at the Special Education Services Centre in accordance with the 1981 Rehabilitation Programme Plan Review, provided 513 custom-made earmoulds for hearing-impaired children.

Post-Secondary Education

There are two post-secondary colleges the Hong Kong Shue Yan College and Lingnan College - registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance. The Hong Kong Shue Yan College, registered in 1976, has three faculties - Arts, Social Science and Business. The college has 13 departments offering day and evening courses with an enrolment of 3 196 students. It operates a four-year diploma programme without government financial assistance. Lingnan College, registered in October 1978, has two faculties Arts and Business and an enrolment of 1 162 students. It offers two-year Form 6 courses and two-year post-Form 6 courses, for which it receives government financial assistance. A fifth year course is available for students who have successfully completed the college's post-Form 6 courses.

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The Hong Kong Baptist College, which was registered in 1970 as an approved post-secondary college, came under the auspices of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee in November 1983. However, the Education Department will continue to fund the two-year Form 6 courses at this college until June 1985.

Students on the two-year post-Form 6 courses at Lingnan College are eligible to apply for grants and loans, the maximum levels for which were set at $3,300 and $3,900 per annum respectively in the 1984-5 academic year. Loans up to a maximum of $7,200 per annum were available to students in the further one-year post-Form 6 course at Lingnan College and to students in the four-year course at Shue Yan College.

Some private day and evening schools, registered under the Education Ordinance, offer post-secondary courses of varying standards but they do not receive any aid from the government.

Higher Education

The government's main source of advice on the development and funding of higher education is the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee (UPGC). During the year, funds were provided for continuing increases in student numbers at the two universities and the Hong Kong Polytechnic, the latter entering into an interesting consolidation stage as it nears its maximum population of 13 500 full-time equivalent students within which the number of degree students will gradually increase to up to 30 per cent. Grants were also provided through the UPGC to the Hong Kong Baptist College which is undertaking a substantial reorganisation of its programmes before increasing its student numbers back up to about 3 000. A proportion of these will be at degree level.