6 -
community leaders to explain the proposals; a summary leaflet in Chinese
was widely distributed through public libraries and city district offices;
educational bodies and the public at large were invited to comment on
the proposals in the Green Paper, and their comments (together with views
expressed in articles in the press) were considered and discussed within
the government; the Secretary for Social Services held discussions on the
Green Paper with representatives of the main tertiary education
institutions: a team from the Home Affairs Department and the University
of Hong Kong supervised a survey of the opinions of teachers, school
principals, students, parents and employers on aspects of the Green Paper;
the Working Party's consultant made a three-week visit to Hong Kong to
advise on various aspects of educational planning, in particular the
social and economic implications; and finally, the Green Paper was the
subject of a debate in the Legislative Council during July and August
1978. As a result, the 1978 White Paper embodied a number of important
modifications of the Green Paper proposals: for example
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
whereas the Green Paper proposed that public-sector
senior secondary places should be provided for 50 per
cent of the 15-year-old population by 1981 (itself an
improvement on existing policy which provided for
40 per cent), the White Paper increased the target to
a proposed 60 per cent, rising by various means to
over 70 per cent by 1986;
whereas the Green Paper proposed no radical change in
the status of the approved post-secondary colleges the
White Paper proposed that they should be offered
financial assistance provided they agreed to restructure
their courses to help the government meet its sixth-form
and post-sixth form targets;
the suggestion in the Green Paper that the Chinese
University should consider reducing its undergraduate