CONFIDENTIAL
VISIT OF MINISTER OF STATE
(LORD SHEPHERD)
TO HONG KONG MAY/JUNE 1969
Note No. 14
EDUCATION
19.7 per cent of total expenditure (21.3 per cent of re- current expenditure) is absorbed by education in the 1969/70 estimates: a high proportion by any standards.
2. The Minister may wish to discuss with the Governor the possible use of free primary education as a weapon against the communist educational effort (paragraphs 6-7 below). In this connection paragraphs of Note No. 5. Confrontation are also relevant. Paragraphs 12-13 below may be relevant to the Minister's meeting with the Federation of Students Unions.
Primary Education
3. It is the aim of the Hong Kong Government to provide by 1970/71 free or subsidised education to all children of primary school age who seek it. By that date a total of 695,000 places in Government and subsidised primary schools will exceed the estimated total of 650,000 children of primary school age.
4. The fees charged at Government and aided primary schools are very low, at present ranging from HK$40 to HK$10 a year depending on the locality of the school. They are to be reduced later this year to the range HK820 to HKZ10 a year. Headmasters of these schools have authority to remit fees in part or in whole, according to need, up to a ceiling of 20 per cent of the total potential fee income of their schools, and authorisation to exceed this limit can be obtained where
necessary.
5. We have no information how much it would cost to move to free primary education after 1971 if by then the necessary places in Government and aided schools have been provided. But on the face of it the additional cost would not exceed the fees being charged at the most say 600,000 x $20 = 12 million = £825,000 a year.
CONFIDENTIAL
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