(ii) Provision of sufficient 3-year assisted places for 100% of the 12-14 age group, (i.e. 267,000 places), apportioned so that 22% (i.e. 60,000 places) are pre-vocational type.
B. Interim Objectives, to be reached by 1981.
(i) Provision of sufficient 5-year places for 36% of the 12-16 age group in Government and fully-aided secondary schools, apportioned between 24% grammar type places and 12% secondary technical type places.
(ii) Provision of sufficient Government assisted 3-year places for 80% of the 12-14 age group, apportioned so that 22% are pre-vocational type places.
We conducted our examination of the factors involved in the school building programme under three broad headings-Planning, Building and Financing.
77. Age-groups are used for planning purposes because the number of persons likely to fall within the limits of any appropriate age-group can be projected on the basis of census returns. However, since fluctuations in the birth rate result in variations in the number of persons in any selected age-group, it is necessary to select a particular year as representative of the age-group. Accordingly, we have selected the numbers projected for 1976 and 1980 as representative of the 12-16 age-group and of the 12-14 age-group.
78. We selected 1980 because we needed to avoid a year in which the projection for the age-groups was smallest, and 1976 was the year already in use for Government planning. The Department of Census and Statistics has shown that these projections are expected to fall between 1976 and 1985 and then rise to meet the 1980 total again in 1990.
79. We then considered the development of the school building programme taking into account the implications both of Government's already approved policy for the secondary school building programme to 1976 and our own recommended objectives.
80. For Government planning purposes Hong Kong is divided into Primary Planning Units, which are sub-divided into Secondary Planning Units which in turn are sub-divided into Tertiary Planning Units. Secondary Planning Units are used for school purposes because they show the projected population of each area. We noted that the approved building programme up to 1976 made an attempt to achieve
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