THE Education Department is still waiting to hear from the authorities on whether proposals to build a resource centre in Tsuen Wan for gifted students would be shelved.
The proposed site is where the Tsuen Wan Government Secondary Technical School now stands. The school is teaching its last batch of Forms Three and Five students.
After this academic year, the school will be closed. The plan was to convert it into a resource centre for gifted children.
However, due to a shortage of land in the area, the Government would like to sell the plot for commercial or residential use.
The Principal Inspector of the Education Department's Psychological Service Unit, Ruth Lau Wing-mun, said: ''We are not sure if we can use the land as planned. We're still waiting for response from the Government.
''It is important to build the centre because without it, our school-based programme for gifted children will lose its effect.'' Mrs Lau told Young Post that the three-year project could manage without a centre in the first six months. ''But after that, we will definitely need it.'' The centre, if established, will be equipped with a library collection for children and their parents and teachers, a place for drama activities, some computers and a number of special rooms.
''All gifted children will have access to the centre, not only the ones who have been selected for our project,'' said Mrs Lau, adding that about two per cent of children in Hong Kong are gifted.
