C.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL
機密
3 -
XCC(75)42
involves not only the physical provision of additional places through buying from existing schools and building new ones, but also a review of the existing systems of aid (i. e. types and level of subsidy, fees and remission policy), and an assessment of the future requirement for teachers. There are also other urgent tasks, not associated with the White Paper, which require to be done. Against these priorities the Department is devoting a disproportionate amount of time and effort to managing public examinations. This is a heavy management burden because the activity is both specialised and highly controversial. This direct involvement cannot be beneficial to the Education Depart- ment, because its involvement with controversial problems reduces the amount of time and effort it can devote to pursuing other and more urgent priorities (e.g. developing secondary education).
7
As regards (b): the Examinations Division of the Education Department is at present responsible for conducting the Secondary Schools Entrance Examination, the Certificate of Education Examina- tion and a variety of external examinations. These examinations are conducted with reasonable efficiency but the Division has encountered certain basic management difficulties. Because its staff are staff of the Education Department there is a natural tendency for them to transfer back to the main streams of educational practice and adminis- tration, with the result that the Division suffers from loss of continuity and a drain on its expertise. Because the Department recruits to meet its overall staffing requirements rather than specific specialities, the Division is unable to recruit people who have talent and a preference for examinations work but who do not wish to do any other kind of work. While these management problems can be solved by devising special terms of appointment for the staff of the Division, this solution is likely to cause more problems than it solves as long as the Examina – tions Division remains part of the Education Department.
8
The Director of Education considers that there is a strong case for a greater degree of rationalisation in school examinations. This has been achieved at the primary school leaving stage through the SSEE and the secondary school leaving stage through the Certificate of Education Examination. Beyond this stage there is a multiplicity of examinations (e.g. HKU A Level, CUHK Matriculation, GCE, etc). To reduce the cost to and pressures upon the sixth form and other post-secondary pupils there is a strong case for holding one public examination that would not only serve the requirements of the univer- sities but also better reflect the requirements of prospective employers in Hong Kong. But given the management difficulties faced by the Examinations Division, and as the Hong Kong University has expressed a strong desire to pass its responsibility for the existing A Level examination to some independent authority on which they would be
CONFIDENTIAL ##