ENG-1994 — Page 195

EDUCATION

Teaching syllabuses are prepared by the CDC for all subjects offered at the secondary level, and examination syllabuses are prepared by the HKEA. There is close co-ordination between the two bodies, and syllabuses are reviewed and revised as necessary to meet the changing needs of society. During the year, explanatory notes on the use of calculators in secondary mathematics were issued while the syllabus for human biology was revised. A guide to the Secondary 1 to 5 curriculum was published and distributed to schools, to help them develop a curriculum suited to their students' needs and interests.

All sixth form courses last two years. Subjects available include 18 at the advanced supplementary (AS) level and 22 at the advanced level. During the year, a feasibility study on introducing electronics as a new practical subject at AS level was completed, with positive findings.

To help teachers implement the sixth form curriculum and become familiar with syllabuses, teaching approaches and strategies, the Curriculum Development Institute and Advisory Inspectorate offered short courses and seminars. The department also funded in- service teacher education programmes on individual AS level subjects which were mounted by tertiary institutions. The CDI published and distributed to schools a guide to the sixth form curriculum.

The number of computers installed in secondary schools for computer education was doubled to over 9 000 during the year, giving every student on a computer course individual access to a machine.

Cross-curricular studies such as civic education, moral education, sex education, AIDS education and environmental education are promoted by making use of learning oppor- tunities in subjects across the curriculum and in extra-curricular activities. A booklet entitled Guidelines on the Prevention of Blood-borne Diseases in Schools and a video pro- gramme on AIDS Education at School were produced and issued to schools, and two three- day courses on drug education and sex education were organised for secondary school teachers in the summer. Curriculum resource kits with the theme 'Respect the Elderly' were developed and distributed.

All public sector secondary school libraries are staffed by a teacher-librarian. The 1994 reading award scheme for Secondary 1 to 5 attracted 33 000 students from 205 schools. The school library newsletter continued to provide a channel of communication for schools on managing, developing and using the library to support the curriculum.

To promote greater use of Chinese as the medium of instruction in secondary schools, the Chinese Textbooks Committee continued to ensure the availability of good quality Chinese textbooks. A total of 82 sets of Chinese textbooks for 27 subjects at secondary level and 10 sets of Chinese reference books for five subjects at advanced level have so far been published.

Secondary schools are encouraged to adopt Chinese as the medium of instruction, and discouraged from using a mixture of English and Chinese in classroom teaching. To support this policy, they were categorised during the year into Chinese-medium, English-medium and two-medium schools according to the language proficiency profiles of their Secondary 1 intakes from 1989 to 1993. Primary 6 leavers were grouped, for purposes of admission to secondary schools, into: (a) those able to learn effectively in either Chinese or English (33 per cent), (b) those who would learn best through Chinese (60 per cent), and (c) those who would learn better through Chinese but would probably also be able to learn in English

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