REVIEW
9
limitations were candidly stated: we cannot yet plan for medical services equal to those now provided in western countries. If we had the money it would still be physically impossible to achieve such a standard by 1972. Even so these plans, if we can implement them, will cost about $380 million in capital expenditure and will raise recurrent expenditure on medical and health services to at least $250 million a year by the end of the period.
The re-examination of our educational system has been more protracted, perhaps because our situation is very special. Housing and health are not simple matters either, but the basic objectives are clear and there are obvious standards. 'More and better educa- tion' is not a very precise objective anywhere and in Hong Kong it is almost meaningless unless it has come to terms with tradition on the one hand and the facts of our economic life on the other. Steps to make the most of our available school places had been taken in 1963 when the structure of our primary and secondary systems was reorganized to provide five years of primary schooling between the ages of seven and 11 and at least two more years of secondary schooling for those who are not going on for a full secondary education. The report of the Education Commission, which was published in January, was a study of the kind of education we get for our money as well as the amount and how this pattern might be shaped to provide the best value in education for the community. This expert report, the work of two senior local govern- ment officers from England, included a balanced appreciation of the difficulties which face educational development in Hong Kong. They observed, for example, that although the traditional Chinese desire for learning is so strong in Hong Kong it is often a desire for academic success and that in their ambitions for their children parents may not be taking sufficient account of the opportunities which, in an increasingly industrial society, lie in skilled manual work. In a further comment upon tradition and parental desire for examination success they question its effect upon education in the wider sense of producing young men and women who will be happy and useful citizens of their society.
On the day that this expert report was published it was announced that a special Working Party had been appointed to advise on the extent to which its multifarious recommendations should be adopted and the manner and timing of their introduction. This group met