6
XXD
Education
THE year saw Continued expansion in education, largely in accordance with the policy set out in the 1981 White Paper on Primary Education and Pre-primary Services. Some $934 million in capital expenditure and $3 987 million in recurrent expenditure was provided for education in the government's estimate for 1982-3, representing 13 per cent of the total budget for Hong Kong.
An international panel of visitors, appointed by the government in June 1981 after close consultation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to carry out an overall review of the local education system, returned in late March 1982 for two plenary sessions. These were attended by about 80 local representatives from various educational groups as well as six overseas delegates - from the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Denmark, Japan and Canada to give the discussions a wider international dimension. The four-man panel submitted the final report to the government at the end of 1982.
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The introduction of a new system of admission to Primary 1 classes in schools in the public sector was announced in July. The system, which will come into effect in September 1983, is designed to eliminate much of the pressure imposed on young children by the intense competition to enter popular primary schools and the adverse effect this has on education at the kindergarten level.
The Education Ordinance was amended to make three years eight months the normal age of entry to kindergarten education. The Education Regulations were also amended to provide new standards for the size of classes and the provision of space in kindergartens. In order to give kindergarten operators time to adjust to these changes, the new provision concerning age will come into force on September 1, 1985, and the new provisions concerning class size and space on September 1, 1986.
In September, a rent reimbursement scheme for non-profit-making kindergartens and a fee assistance scheme for needy families with children requiring pre-primary services was introduced. A curriculum development team of practising kindergarten teachers was also formed.
Secondary education continued to expand in accordance with the proposals contained in the 1974 and 1978 White Papers. Twenty-two new secondary schools providing a total of 24 200 additional places were completed during the year, bringing the total number of schools completed in the Secondary Schools Building Programme to 92. A further 38 schools, including 12 prevocational schools, are expected to be ready by 1985–6. In September, 57 previously private, non-profit-making schools were granted a full government subsidy on completion of a phased conversion scheme.
As a measure to improve the quality of education, the government established the Institute of Language in Education in September to train and re-train non-graduate