C4
and traditions is a very attractive one. Once control of entry had
removed the competitive element there would appear to be every reason
to widen the feeder system, especially since the implementation of the
1978 White Paper should eventually result in all secondary schools
becoming acceptable in standard.
5.
The Green Paper decribes one possible system of control which
the government is prepared to implement: this aims to leave the maximum
possible discretion with parents but retain enough discretion on the
part of the school to protect its traditions. Above all, it does away
completely with testing. A district system is envisaged, in which as
many children as possible would be allocated to schools within easy
reach of their homes. To achieve this, the territory would be divided
into district nets, each net being considerably smaller than those
currently used for allocation to secondary schools. The nets would
be adjusted to ensure a reasonable choice of different types of primary
school in each net and parents' choice of school would be the main
would
criterion for allocation within the net.
However, in order to permit
schools to retain their traditional links, they would be allowed to
select a proportion of their intake if they wished, before any allocation
took place, but this selection would itself be subject to some measure of
control. The essence of the proposal is that allocation would be based
on the parents' choices and not on the child's ability, through a system
designed to ensure that the greatest possible number of pupils were
allocated to a school high on their parents' preference list.
6.
Until 1977 the selection of pupils for the then limited number
of public-sector secondary school places was by public examination
the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE). All candidates were
required to take the examination in three basic subjects'
and mathematics in one afternoon.
Chinese, English
Allocation was carried out in "bands"
in which parents' first choices were considered in strict order of merit,
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