ENG-1988 — Page 147

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EDUCATION

teaching centres and adjustment units, a peripatetic teaching service in ordinary schools during school hours, and advisory services to schools.

Screening and assessment services were provided to identify special educational needs among school-age children so that remedial action could be taken as early as possible. Primary 1 pupils were screened under the Combined Screening Programme for defects in hearing and vision. This programme also provided checklists and guides for teachers to detect children with speech problems and learning difficulties. Pupils requiring further assessment were given audiological, speech or psychological assessment while those in need of remedial services such as speech and auditory training, speech therapy and counselling were given such services at the Special Education Services Centres. One of the Special Education Services Centres operates an ear mould laboratory to provide ear moulds to hearing impaired pupils.

The centralised braille production centre, established in late 1986 and operated by the Hong Kong Society for the Blind under government subvention, produced braille reading material, including textbooks, and carried out research to improve braille production in both English and Chinese.

Two-year, part-time in-service training courses for teachers of children with special educational needs were operated by the Sir Robert Black College of Education. Short courses, seminars and workshops as well as refresher courses were frequently held by the Special Education Section to enhance the professional knowledge of staff in the special education field.

Post-Secondary Education

There are two approved post-secondary colleges registered under the Post Secondary Colleges Ordinance (Chapter 320). They are the Hong Kong Shue Yan College and Lingnan College. The Hong Kong Shue Yan College, registered in January 1976, has three faculties - Arts, Social Science and Business with 13 departments offering day and evening courses to 4 024 students. It operates a four-year diploma programme without government financial assistance. Lingnan College, registered in October 1978, has three faculties – Arts, Business and Social Science – with seven departments and an enrolment of 1 162 students. It attracts government financial assistance for its two-year sixth-form courses and the two-year post-sixth-form higher diploma course. However, no financial assistance is given to the fifth year course leading to an honours diploma for students who successfully completed the higher diploma course. ]

In late November 1987, the government invited the United Kingdom Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) to examine courses provided by Lingnan College to determine its academic standard. This assessment was in line with the terms of the 1978 White Paper on the Development of Senior Secondary and Tertiary Education, which stipulated that the standards of the qualifications awarded by those post-secondary colleges which received government financial assistance should be assessed to ensure comparability with those of the Hong Kong Polytechnic. As a result of the assessment, Lingnan College became eligible for greater financial assistance from government in 1988-9 and thereafter. The college also began phasing out its sixth-form courses in September 1988, and modifying its present 2 + 1 structure for post-sixth-form diploma courses so that students can follow an integrated three-year course in future.

Students of the first and second years of the integrated three-year diploma course at post-sixth-form level at Lingnan College were eligible for grants and loans, the maximum levels for which were revised to $3,900 and $4,700 a year respectively in the 1988-9