ENG-2005 — Page 198

160 Education

The first non-profit-making private independent school was opened in September 2004 and eight more are scheduled to open in phases by 2008. There are 11 senior secondary schools out of the 59 DSS schools. Senior secondary schools are operated under DSS funding to help the schools design market-led, diversified and practical courses to provide an additional education option for Secondary 3 leavers who are interested in alternative curricula.

Fifty-six international schools, including 15 schools operated by the English. Schools Foundation, were operating in Hong Kong in September. These schools form an important social infrastructure to maintain Hong Kong's status as an international business centre and a vibrant cosmopolitan city. They offer different non-local curricula, namely, American, Australian, British, Canadian, French, German-Swiss, Japanese, Korean and Singaporean, and provide a total of 36 900 places.

Special Education

The Government's main policy objective is to integrate SEN children into the community through coordinated efforts by non-governmental organisations with government support. The ordinary schools are encouraged to adopt a whole-school approach to support the children with SEN. They are also asked to set up a student support team to coordinate the use of various resources and design appropriate school-based remedial services for the students with SEN.

In the 2005-06 school year, 334 mainstream schools adopted a whole-school approach to supporting about 6 900 students with special educational needs or with a disability. In addition, there were 62 special schools for those with severe or multiple disabilities, of which 20 also provided boarding facilities. Together, they provided around 8 500 school places and 1 000 boarding places. Sixteen special schools also served as resource centres, providing professional and resource support for ordinary schools which had admitted students with special education needs. From 2005-06 to 2006-07, seven mainstream schools with experience in the whole-school approach will serve as resource schools on the whole-school approach to share their knowledge and practices with other mainstream schools in supporting students with SEN.

In addition, the Government also provides support services for gifted students to develop their potential, for instance through school-based support, development of resource packages, research and development projects, training courses for teachers and parents, and off-site enrichment programmes.

Project Yi Jin

The Government launched Project Yi Jin in October 2000 to provide an alternative route to continuing education for secondary school leavers and adult learners. The programme aims to upgrade students' knowledge in biliteracy, trilingualism and information technology application through combining academic pursuits with practical skills training. Successful completion of the programme leads to a qualification comparable to five passes in the HKCEE for employment and continuing education purposes. The programme is run by member institutions of the Federation for Continuing Education in Tertiary Institutions and has both full-time and