HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
香港立法局
28 June 1989
一九八九年六月二十八日
38
MRS. CHOW: Sir, for a community which spent $8 billion in the year 1988-89 on education, the Government's position to apportion only 0.9% of that to kindergarten education is indefensible, especially when the total number of children aged three to five is as huge as 252 000. Worse still, of this very miniscule 0.8% is spent on the non-educational purposes of refund on rent and rates and fees assistance leaving only 0.15% on education uses. The failure or refusal to do more is to deny the young parents of these children an educational service which they regard as not only desirable but necessary.
Over the years, the Government has demonstrated neither determination nor commitment to improve the standard and quality of kindergarten education. In spite of continuous urging by the relevant operators and workers as well as Members of this Council, Government has done precious little except to allow a gradual deterioration of the state of affairs in this important though elementary sector of education. One working group has been set up after another but little action has been taken to bring about improvements. Problems have become
more acute:
(a) Many, for instance, dedicated non-profit-making kindergartens are now facing serious financial difficulties because of strict government control on fee increases on the one hand, and the growing burden of teacher salary which Government would not share on the other;
(b) Government's stubborn refusal to set a unified salary scale at reasonable levels for kindergarten teachers has resulted in ridiculously low salaries with no career prospects for them. The sad result is the exodus of many teachers to other fields despite their experience and preference to stay in this one;
(c) In spite of promises made in this Council, there has been very little improvement in facilitating the take-up rate of fee assistance by eligible parents, which stood at a dismal 2% in 1988-89.
Since the Education Commission Report No. 2 published in 1986, a working group was set up to look at the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report. Apart from the fact that two and a half years is unjustifiably long for such a simple study especially when six years had already been taken to formulate the recommendations in the report since the 1981 White Paper on Pre-primary Services, very little has actually happened.