6
Education
DEPARTMENTAL policy has been concerned with implementing recommendations made in the 1965 government white paper on education. There has been a further increase in the number of aided primary school places and it seems likely that the target of providing government or subsidized primary school places for all children of the right age who seek them can be reached by 1970-1.
Primary education in Hong Kong is neither free nor compulsory. However, in government and government-aided primary schools fees are low and, since September 1968, the fees in government primary schools and a large number of subsidized primary schools outside resettlement estates have been reduced from $50 to $40 per annum, while those in all subsidized primary schools in resettle- ment estates have been reduced from $40 to $30 per annum. In rural villages the fee is only $10 per annum. The reduction of fees, coupled with complete or partial fee remission of 20 per cent of primary school places for the government and subsidized schools, ensures that no child is deprived of a place in a public school solely through the inability of his parents to pay the fees. It is declared policy that if at any time it should appear that existing funds are inadequate to meet the demand for remission of fees in public primary schools in all cases of genuine hardship, the Government will authorize further expenditure, even if it means that the rate of remission is raised to 30 per cent or higher.
With effect from September 1968, a scheme of textbook and stationery grants for holders of free places, based on $20 per pupil per annum, has been introduced into all public primary schools.
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Under the Education Ordinance, the Director of Education is charged with the superintendence of matters relating to education in the Colony. He directly controls all government schools and almost all others are required to be registered under the ordinance, which provides the Director with the necessary powers to ensure that acceptable standards are maintained.