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Education
THE year saw the publication in May of a report entitled A Perspective on Education in Hong Kong. This outlines the findings of an international panel appointed by the govern- ment in June 1981 in consultation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to conduct an overall review of the local education system. The public was invited to comment to the government on the report and on July 13 it was debated in the Legislative Council.
Meanwhile, the approved policies for all levels of education as set out in the White Papers of 1974, 1978 and 1981 continued to be followed and put into effect. Some $860.2 million in capital expenditure and $4,863.3 million in recurrent expenditure was provided for education in the government's estimates for 1983-4, representing 13.5 per cent of the total budget for Hong Kong.
The Education Ordinance was amended to enable kindergartens to operate nursery classes for children aged between three years and three years eight months. To ensure that these classes are run to acceptable standards, improved space and class size requirements have been set and will come into force in September 1986.
The new Primary 1 admission system, designed to eliminate pressure on young children to enter popular primary schools, became effective in September. Under this new system, no tests or any form of examination are permitted in the selection of children for Primary 1 places. Allocation of 35 per cent of the places is based on parental choice and place of residence, and these are centrally allocated by the Education Department. A points system is used by schools for the admission of children to fill the remaining 65 per cent of Primary 1 places.
Concurrent with this new system of admission, a pupil record card system was introduced in October. All Primary 1 pupils are issued with record cards to be kept and updated by their schools. When pupils change schools, the cards are transferred to the new school. This system enables schools to trace the educational history of pupils easily, and also provides information required for research and record purposes.
The Institute of Language in Education (ILE), set up in September 1982, conducted two full-time four-month retraining courses for a total of 200 primary school teachers of English and Chinese during the 1982-3 academic year. The institute plans eventually to retrain a total of 1000 teachers of both languages each year. The ILE is part of the government's multi-million dollar language package to improve language standards in schools and in the community. The package also includes provision of additional teachers in schools for remedial language teaching, research into the language of instruction in schools, and installation of a wire-free induction loop system in schools to support language lessons.
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Under the School Building Programme, 12 primary schools 11 located in the new towns – were completed during the year. They provide 24 840 places on a bi-sessional basis.