C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL
機密
6
(c)
(d)
3
XCC(77)19
in 1979 (see paragraph 15), it will be necessary to raise the fee charged, either by raising subject fees by about $3-$5 over the present $15, or by introducing an entry fee.
The Eong Kong Certificate of Education Examination - This examination is at present subsidised by Govern- ment by over $5 million per annum, and it has been calculated that, in order to make it self-financing on the basis of present costs, it would be necessary for the Authority to raise subject fees for school candidates from their present level of $5 to about $10. As it is proposed that the Government subsidy will be phased out over a 3-year period, this increase can be gradually phased in, so that, allowing for inflation, fees might rise by $2 per subject in each of the next 3 years. Fees for private candidates, now $10 per subject, might also rise by the same amount, but it would not be necessary to raise the present entry fee of $28.
External examinations - At present, these examinations are operated by Government at a slight profit. It is not expected that the Authority will need to make any in- creases in the fees charged.
To summarise, it is likely that the only increases in examination fees directly related to the establishment of the Authority will be the doubling of the subject fee for the Hong Kong Certificate of Examination over a 3 year period, and a small increase in either the entry or the subject fees for the matriculation examination of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In view of this, it is not thought that any real benefit would be obtained by the phasing out of the Government subsidy over a longer period than 3 years. The needs of those families genuinely unable to pay fees will be met by a remission scheme administered by the Educa- tion Department, so that no pupil is deprived of the opportunity to sit for public examinations for financial reasons. Although arrangements for this scheme have not yet been finalised, it is proposed that it should be linked to the school fee remission scheme, and that it should be available for each examination conducted by the Authority, subject to a limit of 10% of total fee income for each examination. This compares with present arrangements whereby up to 10% remission is available for the Certificate of Education (although only an average of 8% was claimed over the period 1974-76), but there is no remission for the Matriculation examination to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the 10% re- mission previously available for the Hong Kong University 'A' level examinations has been withdrawn with effect from 1977.
CONFIDENTIAL #