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EDUCATION
parents and students as well as a channel of communication between them and the department. Senior education officers also attend district board meetings, when invited to do so, to assist in discussion of educational matters.
Expenditure
The annual estimates of expenditure for the financial year beginning in April 1986 provided for $986 million in capital expenditure for educational projects and $7,755 million in recurrent expenditure, representing 18 per cent of the total budget.
Kindergartens
In September, there were 825 kindergartens in Hong Kong providing pre-primary educa- tion for 231 610 children in the three-to-five age group. These are mostly private institutions, though an increasing number of kindergartens in the recently completed public housing estates are operated by non-profit-making organisations. In addition to the allocation of premises to non-profit-making kindergarten operators in public housing estates, other government assistance for this level of education include the reimbursement of rates and rents to the non-profit-making kindergartens and fee assistance to needy parents.
Officers of the Education Department are responsible for supervision of kindergartens and also offer professional advice to school managers, teachers, parents and the public. In-service training for teachers is provided through seminars, workshops, exhibitions and training courses, including a two-year part-time course conducted by Grantham College of Education and a 12-week part-time course operated twice yearly by the Advisory Inspectorate of the Education Department, with an annual intake of 240 and 360 teachers respectively. During the year, the Kindergarten Section of the Advisory Inspectorate also organised a series of workshops on the promotion of civic education.
Three serving kindergarten teachers were released from teaching duties, through the courtesy of their employers, to serve as members of the Education Department's Kinder- garten Curriculum Development Team to assist with the production of teaching resource materials.
Primary Education
Primary education has been free in all government schools and in nearly all aided schools since September 1971. In the few aided primary schools where fees are charged, fees may be remitted in cases of genuine hardship. To assist needy parents further, an annual textbook grant of up to $215 per pupil is also available to a maximum of 25 per cent of pupils enrolled in government and aided primary schools. A minority of parents continue to send their children to the 84 private primary schools although places are available in the public sector.
In September, the primary school enrolment totalled 531 993 compared with 534 903 in the previous year. Enrolment in primary-level evening schools for adults totalled 2 743. During the year, 16 primary schools were completed, providing 30 720 primary school places. Of these schools, 13 were located in the new towns to cater for the needs of their growing populations.
Of the 79 929 children who took part in the fourth cycle of the Primary One Admission (POA) System, 45 294 or 56.7 per cent were allocated discretionary places in schools of their parents' choice. The remainder were allocated places in other schools in their own districts, account again being taken of parental preference.