HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 18 January 1989
香港立法局 一九八九年一月十八日
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unify since he stated in his reply that the Government had yet to examine whether all pre-primary services should be brought under the same regulatory framework?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, there can be no question of backtracking because Government has not yet taken a decision as to whether or not to unify. I explained my views on this in reply to a similar question in November. As I said in the Council on 23 November, the difference between kindergartens and child care centres has arisen for historical reasons. Child care centres basically look after children whose parents are not able to look after them. They are welfare-directed institutions. Kindergartens are teaching institutions. In practice the two functions do overlap and this leads to public concern to have unity but it is not a straightforward or obvious question that there should be unity.
鄭德健議員問:主席先生,剛才教育統籌司並沒有回答我的問題。統籌司說與統一無關,事實上 與統一是有直接關係的。因為幼稚園隸屬教育司署管轄,而幼兒中心則隸屬社會福利署管理,兩 方面若是沒有聯繫,便不會互相爭取學生,幼兒中心兼做教育工作,所以希望教育統籌司能夠從 速解答我的問題。我剛才的問題事實上是與統一有關係的,我想問教育統籌司可否解釋為何沒有 關係?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, I only said that I could not see the connection. I am not doubting there is one, but I have not spotted it. The two systems are different. The original question, as I understood it, was concerned about the financial position of kindergartens. I am not sure whether the idea behind that is to ask whether we will increase subsidies. If that is the question, we have no immediate plans to increase the subsidies to kindergartens though if our proposals lead to additional costs and additional fees then automatically the number of parents qualifying for fee assistance would increase and the amount of fee assistance they receive would autornatically increase.
周美德議員問:主席先生,政府通過報告書時,其實有否對所需的人手作出一個恰當的評估和作 出相應的措施?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, again I am not quite sure what the point of the question is. The commission, as I said, made proposals to encourage improvement of staff training through increased fee assistance to those kindergartens which use trained staff.