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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The railway terminus should be moved to Hung Hom at the earliest possible date. I am sure that no railway station in developed cities have a mile long queue outside it on some public holidays. Other stations along the route built several decades ago must also be renovated to suit present needs.
No. 2, Education—This is an immense and complex problem. Now and then a number of educational experts hold meetings for weeks and months discussing only certain aspects of education and often arrive at controversial conclusions. I am merely taking this opportunity to put forward several points and do believe that these views are being shared by many people.
1. Abolition of the Secondary School Entrance Examination.
2.
Primary school students, aged six to twelve, apart from having to learn what is in their textbooks must be looked after morally and physically. The present education system puts our young students under tension as they have to be trained for passing examinations for two years prior to the Secondary School Entrance Examination, a situation which is most undesirable. During this period students are forced by their teachers and parents to work day and night. Schools set aside many other subjects which are important to students but not required for the examination while concentrating on the three requisite subjects. Many families are often totally mobilized to help their member(s) who are/is to sit for this examination and become anxious and nervous as well throughout this period not to mention the effect of the whole process on students themselves. The present examination system is indeed a very inhuman and vicious one which not only affects our young and helpless children but also almost the whole community. I presume that our policy-making education authorities do not realize the situation as their own children hardly need to face all these problems. This is, however, no excuse for them not to make a careful study of the present examination system for the sake of most children in Hong Kong. I am of the firm opinion such an inhuman system must be abolished, and the sooner the better.
I reiterate here that the contents of approved textbooks for Chinese must be totally revised.
I made this suggestion in my speech in 1967 and a Government special committee set up to deal with this question came up with the same conclusion. However, two years have already passed, but our authorities have taken no positive action in this respect. Because of their inaction, our poor school children are still wasting much of their precious time learning impractical knowledge.
3.
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Medical School for The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Once again I appeal for the establishment of a medical school in The Chinese University. The problem of a shortage of doctors has been with us for over twenty years, and there is no sign whatsoever it is going to be solved in the near future. According to a World Health Organization report in 1968, we have only one third of the number of doctors per capita as compared with Tokyo and about 40% of the per capita ratio in Taipei. In other words, with the present rate of production of medical doctors, it will take another twenty years before we can reach the present state of doctor-patient rate in Taipei, not to say Tokyo or other advanced cities. The establishment of another medical school will not only help to increase the number of doctors but also to raise the medical standard here through competition. As for the problem of textbooks (which is often raised as a factor militating against having a medical school in The Chinese University) they can all be in English. In fact, over 90% of medical schools formerly in China were using textbooks in foreign languages, mostly English.
It is my opinion that if the medical organizations here are genuinely concerned with the health of the people, willing to extend their services of modern medicine to the less privileged and to aim at ever rising medical standards, they should come out in support of my proposal. At the same time, they should press the Government to draft legislation to press employers in industry and commerce to provide a subsidized medical service to their employees. By doing this, doctors need not worry about the problem of so-called "shortage of patients", and a much greater population of Hong Kong would be benefited from modern medicine.
(Mr. B. A. BERNACCHI arrived at this point).
4. The technical schools and college of Hong Kong would contribute more if Chinese were used as a medium of instruction. Some two years ago when I proposed to have medical and engineering faculties to be established in The Chinese University of Hong Kong an editorial comment of the South China
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