ENG-2001 — Page 199

EDUCATION

school year, a new subject of civic education has been introduced at Secondary 1

to 3.

A school-based remedial support programme has been implemented to support secondary schools with a high intake of academically low achievers. These schools are given greater flexibility and additional manpower to provide remedial services for their students. Support services are also provided to secondary schools on matters. relating to student discipline.

Special Education

The Government's main policy objective is to integrate children with special educational needs into the community through co-ordinated efforts by non- governmental organisations with government support.

Early identification of special educational needs of children is important. Assessment services identify hearing, speech and learning/behaviour problems among school-age children so that appropriate follow-up action can be taken and remedial treatment given before the problems develop into handicaps.

Children with special educational needs are integrated into ordinary schools as far as possible. They are placed in special schools only when their handicaps are such that they cannot benefit from the ordinary school programmes. Following a pilot project in 1997, a whole-school approach to integration has been adopted as the long-term strategy for integrating students with special needs. In September, 55 visually-impaired, 665 hearing-impaired, 230 physically handicapped, 635 mentally handicapped and 201 autistic students were integrated into ordinary schools, with special educational support from the Education Department. In the 2001-02 school year, there were 66 primary and secondary schools adopting the whole-school approach in supporting the integration of children with mild grade mental handicap, autistic disorder with average intelligence, visual impairment, hearing impairment and physical handicap. The Government has set aside $124 million for the promotion of integrated education in the next three years.

Special education classes in ordinary schools cater for the visually-impaired, hearing-impaired children and children with learning difficulties. Services for children integrated into ordinary classes include school-based or centre-based intensive remedial support in the basic subjects, behavioural guidance to children and advice to teachers on how to help children with special needs.

In September, there were 62 special schools including two for the visually impaired, four for the hearing impaired, seven for the physically handicapped, 41 for the mentally handicapped, seven for the maladjusted and one hospital school. Of these, 19 provided boarding facilities. Besides being staffed by specially trained teachers, special schools are supported by specialist staff such as educational psychologists, speech therapists, audiologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers.

Special schools and special support systems within mainstream schools generally follow the curriculum framework of ordinary schools with adaptations and extensions, where 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. These include

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