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4. Mr Parry wondered whether the high budget on education
was being spent in the right proportions between tertiary and
other types of education. D of E emphasized the demand in
Hong Kong for University education of a standard as high as available elsewhere and the cost of providing this. Mr Parry
questioned whether sufficient numbers of qualified professionals
were in fact being produced and HE replied that a working party
on higher education would report on this by the end of the year,
but that the rate of expansion of tertiary education was very fast indeed and gave the figures. Though he did not personally agree with this, some believed that there was a danger that by the 80s there would be over-provision.
5.
Mr Parry observed that the replacement of the S.S.E.E. entrance examination by an aptitude test would merely carry on
the old system of discrimination. D of E.explained as long
as there were insufficient school places in the public sector
there had to be some method of selection and that even when
places were available for all it would still be necessary to
have some system to decide which children went to which schools.
It would not be possible to eliminate parental choice and this
would have to be supplemented by a system of teachers'
assessments to which the aptitude test would give some
validation. Under, the proposed system of 'banding', bright
children from the poorer primary schools would have a better
prospect than at present of entering one of the best secondary
schools.
6. In view of some of Mr Parry's remarks H.E. emphasized the
rate of expansion in secondary education: 48 schools were being
built under the current programme and a programme for another 35 would be introduced next year.
Housing
7. In response to an enquiry from Mr Parry about rents, D of H
explained that existing group B rents did not even cover the
costs of maintenance and administration and that, there had been
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