1
The Hong Kong Education System
Chapter 8
Prospects for the Development of Education
This final chapter considers prospects for the development
of Hong Kong education over the next decade. It is not in any sense
a definitive or even a tentative statement of government intentions,
since the formulation of future education policy will be determined in
the normal way by means of the procedures described earlier in this
report. It is no more than an exploration of issues which, judged from
the standpoint of the present state of education, appear to the
government as being likely to exert a strong influence on future policy
development: however, the direction which that policy eventually takes
will be largely determined by the views and wishes of the community.
Present state of development
8.2
At this point it may be helpful to recapitulate the main
endeavours of the government's present educational programmes as presented
by the Governor against the background of Hong Kong's current economic
situation and the problem of immigration in his Address at the opening
session of the Legislative Council on 1st October 1980. In brief these
are as follows:
(a) After housing, education is one of the principal concerns
of our population and is one of our biggest and most
complex programmes.
(b) The aim of providing our children with nine years of free,
universal and compulsory education has now been realised:
our present efforts are directed in the main to the imple-
mentation of the 1978 White Paper.
(c) As a result of immigration we shall be marginally short
of the 1981 Form IV target of subsidised places for 60%