3.4
In order to ensure that every child receives a suitable basic school education, the Government proposes to introduce amendments to the Education Ordinance that would extend the Director of Education's powers to enforce school attendance, eventually to cover children below the age of 15 who have not yet completed Form III. The Government does not propose to extend these powers to cover older persons. Accordingly, those who stay on in secondary school up to Form V will do so on a voluntary basis.
3.5
The Government's aim is to provide a range of opportunities for students to continue their education on a subsidised basis after completing Form III. However, not everyone will wish to avail himself of such opportunities, nor should all of the places be provided in schools.
3.6
Many young people will continue to choose to enter employment at the age of 15 and will require their secondary education to be designed with this aim in mind. Furthermore, because of late entry to primary school and of the practice of repeating one or more years, substantial numbers of students are aged 16 or 17 by the time they reach Form III and they may be particularly unlikely to want to stay on at school for a longer period. It should be remembered that the decision of many people to leave school after Form III is attributable not just to the fees and other school expenses. A more significant factor is the "opportunity cost" of earnings foregone through remaining in full-time education. At present about 50% of the 15-16 year old population continue their education to Form V, though only one third of that number have subsidised places. As the Government expands the number of subsidised senior secondary places, which provide for needy students to receive remission of fees, the proportion of students staying on to Form V may be expected to increase, but many young people of 15 or over who are not of an academic inclination will probably continue to find the money they could earn by entering employment to be more attractive than the dubious prospects resulting from completing Form V.
Such young
people who choose to enter employment may wish to continue their studies on a part-time or evening basis, and suitable publicly-provided courses are available for them in technical institutes and in adult education centres.
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