REVIEW
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reasons, the family would be eligible to be considered for aid under the new public assistance scheme.
Primary school expansion can now be geared to particular rather than overall needs, and it will be possible to relate the building of new primary schools more closely to population movements from one district to another. It will also be possible to concentrate more on the provision of special schools and special classes for children who are slow learners or who suffer from defects of vision, hearing or speech, and plans are now being drawn up to this end. The quality of primary education generally will be improved by the Educational Television Service, which will be ready to start in 1971.
With free or aided primary education on the point of being available to all children, the Government announced in August that the next main aim would be progressively to make available, with government assistance, at least three years of aided post-primary education for all children in the relevant age-group who seek it. It is intended that the first stage, which will provide for half the children in this category will, if possible, be completed by 1976.
Meanwhile it is proposed that provision should be made for 18-20 per cent of the 12-16 age-group to proceed further to aided courses leading to a Certificate of Education. The extra school places required to achieve this would be provided either directly in govern- ment or aided schools, or indirectly in private non-profit schools which would be assisted for the purpose, or by bought places in suitable private schools. There are already approximately 62,000 government and aided places in Forms I-III; in order to give effect to this new policy an additional 101,600 aided places would be required by 1976. Detailed planning for this considerable task is now in hand.
Not all children are academically inclined, and more and more school leavers in Hong Kong are destined to spend their working lives as operatives, craftsmen and technicians in industry. In order to maintain a proper balance between the various forms of post- primary education it was decided to increase to a total of 11,000 the number of aided places in Forms I-III in secondary modern and pre-vocational schools.
In October, the new buildings of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute were opened by the Governor. The institute now has an