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EDUCATION

appropriate, to cater for varied learning needs. To facilitate school-based curriculum development to target the specific needs of pupils, the Education Department, as advised by the CDC, has completed the development of a series of Guides to Curriculum for Children with Special Educational Needs. They include the Guides to Curriculum for Visually Handicapped, Hearing Impaired, Mentally Handicapped, Physically Handicapped and Maladjusted Children. The development of Programmes of Study that are extensions and adaptations of the mainstream curriculum on subjects or learning areas for these children is in progress.

The Fung Hon Chu Gifted Education Centre continues to develop centre-based enrichment programmes for identified gifted students. It also provides training courses and seminars for teachers, school heads, professionals and parents of identified gifted students for promoting their awareness of gifted education services and understanding of these students' educational and emotional needs. The centre also offers training and consultation to 17 primary schools with school-based programmes. Conversion works are under way for the centre's Phase II development to provide additional facilities and increase its services to the public. To further promote gifted education, $10 million has been set aside in 2000-01 for this purpose.

Information Technology in Education

To ensure that young people can grow up with the vision and capability to face challenges of the Information Age, the Government in November 1998 produced a five-year strategy on information technology (IT) in education.

Its four key components are: to enhance students' access to IT and the Internet, to provide training and support for all teachers, to use IT to support teaching in the school curriculum, and to foster a community-wide culture which helps promote IT in education.

Implementation of various initiatives is making good progress. Site preparation works in all schools have been completed. Schools receive cash grants to purchase IT equipment and to connect to the Internet. More than 31 000 teachers have completed training at the Basic Level. A further 54 000 training places at Basic, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced Levels of competencies will be provided in the coming three years. Having regard to their specific training needs, schools may enrol teachers in training courses using the cash grants provided. Besides the four levels of IT training, the Education Department will continue to organise refresher training courses to further promote the use of IT in teaching and learning. Some 250 schools have an IT co-ordinator for a period of two years to develop and roll-out school- based IT plans. Another 163 schools are also provided under the Quality Education Fund project with an additional teacher for a period of two years so as to release their serving teachers to take up the IT co-ordination duties. Furthermore, contract technical support service is provided to all public sector schools.

The Hong Kong Education City (HKEdCity) web site, a large-scale education infrastructure project, was launched by the Education Department in August. Funded by the Quality Education Fund, its goal is to lead, to serve, and to promote quality education and IT culture for life-long and life-wide learning through a broad- band network of schools, teachers, students, parents, and the public.

On a day-to-day basis, the Education Department conducts school visits to offer on-site help and advice on issues related to IT in education. Seminars and workshops