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school places on the same side of the harbour as their homes.
Equipment and facilities are provided and maintained to the
standards laid down in the Education Regulations or in accordance
with policies approved from time to time.
(ii) Since September 1979 all government English schools have come
under the administration of the English Schools Foundation (ESF),
the objectives of the new arrangements being to achieve better
compliance with the principle of parity of subsidy between
English schools and the remainder of the public-sector institutions
as set out in the 1965 White Paper, and to devise a system of
financing which would permit variations from normal provision in
public-sector schools (such as improvements in class size and
teacher/class ratios) with all additional costs being met from
increased fees, should this be what the ESF desires.
(iii) It is the responsibility of the ESF to provide sufficient places
for English-speaking children for whom no suitable alternative
educational facilities are available in the public sector in
Hong Kong. Children whose knowledge of Chinese is limited but
whose mother tongue is not English are not considered to be the
primary responsibility of the ESF.
(iv) A committee was formed in 1979 to review the application of the
parity of subsidy principle to the English schools and the
Governor in Council accepted the committee's recommendations
that the present arrangements whereby the government pays for all
fee remission should continue in 1980-81, but as far as new
pupils are concerned remission will be allowed only to those with
no reasonable alternative opportunity for subsidised education
other than that provided in ESF schools. In order to provide
for hardship cases of pupils already enrolled, a special hardship
grant has been introduced but this will be phased out in not