CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 This Paper sets out the broad basis on which the Government, after taking into account the views of the Board of Education and the general public, intends secondary education in Hong Kong to develop during the next ten years.
1.2 The White Paper on Education Policy, published in April 1965, stated that the final aim of any educational policy must be to provide every child with the best education which he or she is capable of absorbing, at a cost which the parents and the community can afford. The interim goal, of providing free primary education for all who desire it, was accepted by the Government, although it was recognized that it could not be achieved immediately. Free primary education was subsequently introduced in all Government and aided primary schools [with the exception of the Junior English Schools and a minority of subsidized schools] in 1971, by which time sufficient places had become available for every child in the primary age-group.
1.3 The 1965 White Paper recommended that between 15% and 20% of those completing the primary course should receive subsidized secondary education. In 1970, the Government, after a re-appraisal of progress, decided that a further major expansion of secondary education was necessary. Steps were taken to increase the provision of subsidized secondary education to a total of 50% of the Forms I-III age-group. By 1972, with universal primary education a reality, the Government concluded the time had come for a full study of the future development of secondary education to be undertaken.
1.4 On 26th January 1973, the Governor appointed a new Board of Education and asked it to submit a practical policy for the expansion of secondary education. The Board, under the chairmanship of the Honourable P. C. Woo, C.B.E., J.P., included members of the Legisla- tive Council, representatives of a number of religious bodies which manage secondary schools, the Vice-Chancellors of the two Universities, the Director of the Polytechnic, an industrialist, and an educationalist from the New Territories. The Board's report was forwarded to the
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