Chapter 4: The expansion programme for post-Form III education
4.1 The Government will expand the number of places available in schools, technical institutes and adult education centres for Form III leavers on a subsidised basis. The aim will be to meet during the early 1980's the full demand from students who are suitable for the kind of courses which the schools or other institutions provide.
Senior secondary forms
4.2 The programme for senior secondary places (Forms IV-V) described in the Green Paper was designed to provide for 50% of the 15 year-old population by 1981. (Students allocated junior secondary places in 1978, under the new arrangements that have replaced the Secondary Schools Entrance Examination (SSEE), will complete Form III in 1981.) Due to the continuing decline in the size of the 15-year old population, which will be reduced by more than 30% in the decade 1977-86, the places available in 1981 would provide for about 63% of the population in 1986.
4.3 The Government will seek to increase the number of subsidised senior secondary places beyond the target proposed in the Green Paper. It is now the intention to increase the number of subsidised school places for Form III leavers, which was less than 21,000 in the 1977-78 school year,
to about 57,000. This target would provide for about 60% of the 15 year-old population in September 1981 and over 70% by September 1986. Details of the build-up of places are given in Appendix 1.
4.4 These additional places will be created primarily through the school building programme. As noted in the Green Paper, 102 new secondary schools, including converted primary schools, will have been completed by 1981. It is also planned to build extensions to some existing schools, so that more Form IV-V classes can be provided. Moreover, Form IV-V classes will be introduced in secondary modern schools, which have hitherto offered only junior secondary classes, to bring them into line with the class structure in standard schools.
4.5 To increase the number of subsidised senior secondary places further, places will be bought in private non-profit-making schools, where hitherto only junior secondary places have been bought. (Changes are also envisaged in the future financial arrangements for these schools, as described in Chapter 5.) Some existing private independent schools may also be included within the scheme of public-sector support, provided that they adopt non-profit-making status, that their facilities and operating standards are satisfactory and that their places are required to meet approved targets.
4.6 The class structure of schools will be altered to provide more senior secondary places. Some of the schools in the building programme were planned as asymmetrical schools, providing eight class streams in Forms I-III and only two class streams in Forms IV-V. Advantage will be taken of the decline in the size of the junior secondary population to reduce the number of junior secondary streams in these and other private non-profit-making schools to six, thus enabling the number of senior secondary streams to be increased to four. Most of the existing fully-aided grammar and technical schools will, after the full implementation of flotation, contain six junior secondary class streams and four senior secondary streams, which will remain the basic structure for the majority of secondary schools in Hong Kong. However, since the approved new system of allocation to Form I is based on ability and parental choice, some schools will attract a higher proportion of the ablest students. Accordingly, the Director of Education will select certain schools to develop a fully symmetrical structure of five streams throughout Forms I-V. He will base his
1 This estimate is based on the latest population projections which forecast a 15-year old population of 95,450 in 1981 and 77,290
in 1986
6
*
Page 90Page 91