3
C21
The report states that "there is no doubt that most students taking
up post-Form V studies in Hong Kong do so in hopes of gaining a place
in one of the two local universities, the Polytechnic or in some other
tertiary institution either here or abroad. Even if the results gained
in the public examinations set at this level do not permit this goal to
be achieved, the results are still of value in seeking employment. Sixth
Form studies are therefore very much in demand. The competition for the
limited number of places available in tertiary education is so great that
students take as many of the available public examinations as they can.
It is the great number who aspire to tertiary education, and the relatively
small number who succeed in so doing, that is the crux of the problem of
Sixth Form education in Hong Kong. The two-year Advanced Level course
has no doubt served the University of Hong Kong well in providing a basis
for university studies. However, it does appear now to provide an
inappropriate background for developing a balanced, well-informed individual
either with or without subsequent university education." (Report, para. 1.2)
(To the Committee's comments could be added the statement that a number of
Upper Sixth students who fail to gain admission to the University of Hong
Kong have to wait an extra year before applying to and gaining admission
to the Chinese University: they then have to go through the whole of the
four-year degree course, thus taking five years instead of three to obtain
a degree.)
30.
Paragraph 1.2 of the Sixth Form Report is of particular interest
in showing the pattern of movement during the period 1976-1978 as fifth-
form students progressed through the sixth form. The figures show that
(i) about one-third of the Form/Middle V leavers
took up sixth-form courses, approximately 20 per
cent following one-year courses in Middle VI and.
80 per cent following two-year courses in Lower
and Upper Sixth forms;
(ii) approximately 80 per cent of the one-year course