EDUCATION
may be remitted in cases of hardship. Some parents continue to send their children to the 82 private schools, although places are available in the public sector.
In September, primary school enrolment totalled 534 450 and enrolment in primary-level evening schools for adults totalled 1 686. During the year, 13 new schools were completed, providing 24 000 primary places. All these schools were located in the developing new towns to cater for the needs of their growing populations.
Most primary schools operate on a bisessional basis, with children attending either a morning or an afternoon session. In October, the government announced its intention to convert all Primary 5 and 6 classes to whole-day operation.
The Primary One Admission Scheme was introduced in 1983 to monitor admission to Primary 1 in government and aided schools. Of the 78 837 children who took part this year, 46 237 or 58.6 per cent were allocated places in schools of their parents' choice. The remainder were allocated places in schools in their own districts, account again being taken of parental preference.
Primary 6 leavers are allocated secondary school places in the public sector through the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA) System. Allocation is based on the results of internal school assessments, scaled by a centrally-administered Academic Aptitude Test, and on parental choice. During the year, 84 607 Primary 6 students participated in the SSPA and were allocated places in the public sector. Half were allocated to the school of their first choice. This year, an additional twenty pairs of primary and secondary schools joined the Nominated Schools System, under which a secondary school may reserve 25 per cent of its places for students from one or more nominated primary schools.
Secondary Education
In 1978, free education was extended to the junior secondary level. The policy target is to provide, by 1991, subsidised places on senior secondary courses leading to the Hong Kong Certificate of Education examination for about 85 per cent of the 15-year-old population. Places for a further 10 per cent of the age group are to be provided on full-time craft courses in technical institutes. One third of the students on subsidised senior secondary courses will be able to proceed to a subsidised sixth form place.
To meet these targets new secondary schools are built and places are bought from private schools. During the year, 16 new secondary schools were completed, providing 18 520 places. Another 51 schools will be completed between 1990 and 1994 to meet the increasing demand and to reprovision schools from areas of surplus to areas of shortfall. A new standard design of school building, providing additional teaching space, was introduced in 1989.
To supplement the supply of government and aided secondary school places, the government buys Secondary 1 to 3 places from those private schools which have a satisfactory standard, and plans to buy Secondary 4 and 5 places from September 1990. In 1989, 57 539 places were bought from 39 schools. In October, the government announc- ed that, following advice in the Education Commission's Report No. 3, a direct subsidy scheme (DSS) would be introduced in 1991, under which any secondary school meeting specified standards could receive a public subsidy for each student enrolled, but would be free to set its own curriculum, entrance requirements and fee levels, with minimum govern- ment control. It was also announced that the bought place scheme (BPS) would come to an end in the year 2000, and that schools in the BPS would be helped before then to raise their standards to those required of a DSS school. A Private Schools Review Committee was appointed in November to advise on the implementation of these changes.
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