C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL #
機密
XCC(77)46
Copy No Page 9 of 13
34
of 80
The UPGC had estimated that the completion of Phase II of the present expansion programme would provide the Polytechnic with sufficient capacity to receive student numbers of this order. However, on the basis of further information received from the Polytechnic and in view of the proposal to establish there a health services division to provide para-medical training, the UPGC now accepts that some further accommodation beyond Phase II will be required before 1981. The Working Party considers that the university population, which starts from a much lower base line than the Polytechnic, should continue to expand beyond the approved student number targets for 1980-81, at an annual growth rate of 3% to a maximum for each institution of 7, 000 (a maximum that would not be reached at either university until the end of the 1980's). If, in the event, it is decided to reduce the length of the Chinese University's course, with a consequential increase in the number of places available in each year, then an appropriate adjustment would be made to the University's expansion targets.
18
Having identified the targets for further expansion during the 1980's, the Working Party proceeds in Chapters III-VIII to consider the development of each part of the education system within its purview. As the argument is summarised in Chapter IX and the main recommenda- tions listed in Appendix I to the Report, only a few salient points are discussed here. Regarding senior secondary education (Chapter III), the Working Party looks to a continuation of the general academic education that is found in the junior secondary forms. This recom- mendation runs counter to the policy laid down in the 1974 White Paper, which proposed in paragraph 2.8 that 60% of the senior secondary places should be in grammar forms and 40% in senior secondary technical forms. The Working Party envisages that there will instead be a broadening of the range of subjects offered in the senior secondary grammar school course to include practical and technical subjects. It hopes that eventually all secondary schools would provide in their Form IV-V courses for an arts, a science and a technology stream. In considering all these recommendations, however, it should be remembered that the Director of Education has very little control over the curriculum in other than Government schools.
19
The Working Party has not put forward proposals on how students will be selected for senior secondary education, as this is the subject of a report by a separate working party which will be completed shortly. Government's present policy, derived from the 1974 White Paper, is that students will be selected through a new Junior Certificate of Education Examination, to be taken at the end of Form III. Although the proposed new examination has aroused some opposition, some method of selection will be required, as the new arrangements that have been prepared to replace the SSEE do not provide for primary school leavers to be allocated to three or five year secondary places.
CONFIDENTIAL
機密