time when our tertiary institutions are looking to recruit an additional 2 000 teachers in the next three years.
PARENTS AND QUALITY EDUCATION
25. Education is about far more than economics and the supply of labour. As parents, we all want our children to succeed in life, to be happy and fulfilled, to move ahead as far as their talents allow. A good education is the key. Parents rightly want the best for their own children. The Government wants, and will work for, the best education for all the children of Hong Kong. An enormous amount has been done over the past two decades to expand educational opportunities. This will continue. Between now and 1997, we plan to increase recurrent spending on education by 15.8% in real terms. These additional resources will enable us to continue the plans for the dramatic expansion of tertiary education which were started in 1989 by my distinguished predecessor, Lord Wilson.
26. But this increase in quantity at the top must be matched by an increase in quality at the earlier levels. Raising standards in primary and secondary schools must now be the top priority. The last two reports of the Education Commission provide clear and positive advice on how this can be achieved.
An Education Policy for all our Children
27. The single most important step must be to make it possible for our hard-pressed teachers to pay more attention to the needs of the individual child. We all know that, whatever else they are, children are first and foremost individuals. They do not all learn at the same speed. Some are better at reading than at maths. Some are better at day-dreaming than either. Some are budding Einsteins from their first day in the classroom. Our education system must bring out the very best in all of them. To do that, teachers with better training and more resources must have the time to spur on the able and to encourage the less able. The brightest children must be free to excel; the less bright must be given every opportunity and support.
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