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Education
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A MILESTONE in the development of Hong Kong's education system was achieved in 1978 with the introduction of nine years' free schooling for every child.
From September the government was able to provide, in addition to six years' primary education, sufficient places for every primary school-leaver to proceed to three years of secondary education. This was made possible through the provision, since-1976, of 36,645 additional junior secondary places and the building of 51 new schools. A further 51 new secondary schools are planned for completion between 1979 and 1981 to provide places of a better standard and to improve regional distribution.
With the provision of sufficient subsidised junior secondary places for all primary school-leavers, it was no longer necessary to select pupils by means of a competitive public examination. The Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE) was ac- cordingly replaced by a new system of allocating secondary school places to primary school-leavers. Known as the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA), the new system is based on internal school assessments scaled by a centrally-administered Academic Aptitude Test, parental choice of secondary schools, and the division of the territory into 24 school 'nets' or districts.
In July, all of the 103,122 Primary 6-leavers participating in the SSPA in its first year of operation were allocated Form 1 places in schools in the public sector, which comprises places in government and aided schools, private non-profit-making schools in receipt of per caput grants, and private independent schools in the 'bought places' scheme.
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Tuition fees were abolished as from September for all Form 1 to 3 pupils occupying places in the public sector. Only a small number of pupils continue to pay tuition fees. They are pupils in private schools who are not occupying bought places and pupils attending English-speaking schools, which have a different mode of financing. The abolition of fees will cost the government an estimated $39.1 million in the 1978-9 financial year. This cost is likely to rise to $73.3 million in 1982–3.
The government intends to make junior secondary education not only universal and free in the public sector, but also compulsory. To ensure this, the Director of Educa- tion's power to serve a school attendance order on a parent who withholds a child from school without reasonable excuse will be extended to cover children in the junior secondary age range. From September, 1979, this power will cover children under 14 years of age and, from September, 1980, children under 15 who have not completed