4
A SOCIAL COMMITMENT
primary education a reality, the government published in 1974 a White Paper which contained its plans for expanding secondary education for the following 10 years. The objective is to provide for every child, by 1979, nine years' subsidised education, comprising six years in a primary school followed by three years of secondary educa- tion for children aged 12 to 14.
The government also hopes to provide sufficient subsidised places in senior secondary forms for almost half of the 15 to 16 age group. Until enough new schools are built, existing government and aided schools will be encouraged to increase enrolments in Forms I to III by half. This will require the government to pay for thousands of places in private schools, to raise the enrolment of pupils in secondary schools from 137,000 in 1976 to 205,000 by 1979. Although the government is should- ering the full cost of the programme ($2,250 million in five years), these targets can only be attained if there is the fullest co-operation from private schools and agencies.
Improving Medical and Health Services
After the war, priority in the development of health services was first given to the prevention and control of disease, particularly epidemic disease. Then, the govern- ment embarked on longer-term plans for medical and health services, the first programme, lasting five years, being launched in 1960.
To cater for the expanding population, a 10-year development programme was launched in 1963. Its main target was to increase the ratio of hospital beds from 2.9 to 4.25 per 1,000 population. It also provided for one clinic, containing outpatient, maternal and child health facilities, for every 100,000 in the urban areas and for every 50,000 in the New Territories, as well as for new hospitals, specialist clinics and polyclinics.
In July 1974, the government issued the White Paper 'Further Development of Medical and Health Services in Hong Kong'. This sets a long-term objective of 5.5 beds per 1,000 population. To achieve this it is proposed to build three new general hospitals and one psychiatric hospital in the next decade, and to develop regional services to ensure a fuller and more balanced use of hospital beds in government and voluntary agency hospitals. The White Paper also provides for the training of more doctors and nurses to meet the requirements of this expansion, for the introduction of a dental school and a school dental care service, a health education unit, further expansion of the medical treatment of drug addicts, and the opening by the govern- ment of many family planning clinics.
The effectiveness of the preventive medical services is shown by the dramatic improvements in the rate of mortality and the incidence of infectious diseases. Partic- ularly notable has been the success in controlling tuberculosis, which in 1956 claimed 2,600 deaths, a figure reduced to 1,150 in 1973 with a much larger population. The leading causes of death are accidents and degenerative diseases.
Hong Kong's birth rate fell from 35 per thousand in 1961 to 19.7 in 1973. The government, in conjunction with the Family Planning Association, provides sub- sidised family planning facilities in many clinics spread throughout the urban areas.