Your article under the title Education ?Prevocational-Espoirs déçus? in your paper of 12.12.03 gives some food for thought. I am the least surprised that after three years, the whole project of ?prevocational? has been a flop.

From the very start, I am convinced, anyone with a professional concern for education, could foresee the whole scheme as doomed to failure. First of all, we cannot embark on any project without making sure that the teachers working within the project are all properly trained. Training is obviously the key aspect. Teachers selected to redeem those children having reached a below standard level at the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE), should have themselves embarked upon a well-devised training scheme.

The reasons for the CPE failures lie among the following :

(1) The teachers have not undergone the training, and are consequently the culprits.

(2) High rate of absenteeism of the pupils from school.

(3) The pupils suffer from mild mental disability ? mild handicaps being almost invisible.

There must have been great enthusiasm initially but enthousiasm in itself is never enough. Without a solid preparation of teachers, nothing can be achieved. Quoting the article, the teachers do not understand their job, are ill-prepared, weak in terms of content knowledge as well as strategies.

Any other similar project in future is bound to fail if we do not ascertain that the teachers are well-equipped. CPE failures are special children who require a special approach. Children with mild mental disability tend to, the next moment, forget what has been taught to them. Their retentive memory and general cognitive ability may be weak. Hence, the very approach to their education should be different. Do the teachers realize that? One approach known as ?Criterion reference approach? leads to the need to assess the ability of the special child and then only to use the desirable teaching strategy. Do the teachers possess a check list of the different approaches to the teaching of the special child? I have my reservation and doubt. These teachers must have used the traditional ?norm reference? approach in these special classes.

My word of caution is that we have to be well-tuned before embarking upon any project in future. The hypothesis should be set right. Let us not start in a haphazard way. Any kind of ?cosmetic? education has never been convincing.

André WAN CHOW WAH Associate Professor