ENG-1998 — Page 197

EDUCATION

As with the primary level, the government makes constant efforts to improve the design for secondary schools and has been carrying out improvement works to existing secondary schools under the School Improvement Programme since 1994. By January 1999, 97 secondary schools were due to have received additional facilities under the programme.

The student-to-teacher ratio is about 18.8:1. Additional teachers are supplied to strengthen language teaching; to provide remedial teaching, career guidance, counselling, extra-curricular activities and library services; and to enable split-class teaching of cultural, craft and technical subjects, plus some sixth-form subjects. The ratio of graduate to non-graduate teachers is about 7:3.

Each public sector secondary school has a library staffed by a teacher-librarian responsible for managing the school library and organising library activities for students. The 1998 Reading Award Scheme for Secondary 1 to 5 attracted 40 000 students from 215 secondary schools.

Curriculum

The primary school curriculum aims to provide a coherent and balanced programme to promote all-round development. All government and aided primary schools adopt a core curriculum including Chinese, English, Mathematics, General Studies, Music, Physical Education, and Art and Craft as well as Putonghua. A syllabus for each core subject is prepared by the Curriculum Development Council. Syllabuses are regularly reviewed to meet changing educational and community needs. Other learning programmes such as civic education, drug education, environmental education and sex education are offered on a cross-curricular basis or as separate optional subjects. The activity approach is gaining acceptance and in the 1998-99 school year, it was adopted by 495 primary schools, or 62.5 per cent of the total.

Since 1994, the government has promoted the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) to meet individual student needs by setting clear targets, choosing appropriate learning content and adopting effective means of teaching, learning and assessment. During the year, the Curriculum Development Institute (CDI) continued to develop the TOC and to provide necessary resource and support services for implementation in schools. In the 1998–99 school year, over 750 primary schools (about 88 per cent) implemented TOC in the core subjects of Chinese, English and Mathematics progressively in Primary 1 to 3. The concept of TOC will be incorporated into the future revision or updating of other subject syllabuses.

The junior secondary curriculum aims to be balanced and suitable for all students, whether or not they continue formal education beyond Secondary 3. The senior secondary curriculum prepares students for education beyond Secondary 5 and for employment. It offers a diverse range of subjects. There are 47 subjects at junior secondary and 42 at senior secondary levels currently available in schools. These syllabuses are reviewed and revised as necessary to meet the changing needs of the community. To prepare students for future challenges, elements of information technology and its applications have been incorporated into relevant syllabuses. At sixth-form level, there are 19 subjects at the AS-level and 20 at the A-level. The CDI also offers short courses and seminars to help teachers implement and become familiar with the curricula.

145