56
EDUCATION
as a second language. A number of Chinese middle schools also offer a one-year sixth form matriculation course to prepare students for entrance to The Chinese University of Hong Kong. For those who obtain satisfactory results in the certificate of education examinations, higher education is available at the colleges of education, the Technical Institute, and the Polytechnic.
There are 15 secondary technical schools, 14 of which offer a five-year course in English with Chinese taught as a second language. Nine of the schools are govern- ment, four are subsidised and two are private. Their total enrolment is 8,852. Like the Anglo-Chinese grammar schools, they prepare their pupils for the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination and suitable candidates can continue their studies in Form VI or at the Polytechnic. Five subsidised secondary modern schools with an enrolment of 3,732 offer a three-year secondary course with a practical bias. There are also nine private and five subsidised secondary schools with a total enrol- ment of 4,142 which offer some form of technical or trade training not leading to the Certificate of Education Examination. Plans have been approved to provide 6,600 places in three-year courses in subsidised pre-vocational schools and three such schools are already in operation.
There has been a steady increase in the number of pupils enrolled in all types of secondary schools operated during the day. In September, there were 279,483 such students compared with 251,463 in the previous year. During the school year 5,280 new secondary places were provided in new school buildings. Furthermore, a total of 84,698 pupils entered the first year of the secondary school course. This represents the promotion of 81.4 per cent of the pupils completing the primary school course. Of these pupils, 41.3 per cent were awarded government, government-aided or assisted places.
The government's declared aim is to provide three years of aided secondary education for all children in the 12-14 age group seeking it. This will require a sub- stantial programme of expansion, and every effort is being made to provide places for 50 per cent of the age group by 1976. Within this figure and by the same date, provision will be made for 18-20 per cent of the 12-16 age group to proceed to aided courses leading to a certificate of education, but the long-term aim is to double the provision for full secondary education.
The extra school places to be found in Forms I-III under this new policy will be provided either directly in government or aided schools, or in private non-profit- making schools which will be assisted for the purpose, or by buying places in suitable private profit-making schools. For 1972-3 over 18,000 pupils have been awarded three-year assisted places on the results of the Secondary Schools Entrance Examina- tion to be taken up in various private non-profit-making and private profit-making secondary schools. New schools will also have to be built to make up the balance of the required number of places in Forms I-III.
Higher Education
A scheme of student financing, under which public funds are made available for outright grants and interest-free loans to needy students at the University of Hong