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Wednesday, November 15, 1972
On the question of abolishing the Secondary School Entrance
Examination, Mr. Canning said it remains "the fairest method of selection"
even in the tremendously expanded secondary education system which is
envisaged.
The proposed increase in secondary education will, however, take
"much of the heat" out of this examination to the benefit of all concerned,
he added.
As regards the Certificate of Education examination, he said he
has already taken steps to make it less of a hurdle by doing away with the
branding of failure or pass, and by combining the Chinese and the English
examinations into one.
He said any suggestion to abandon this examination would be a
"retrograde step" because it is valued by employers, local and overseas
universities, professional institutions and others concerned.
The Director described as "unfair and untrue" some of the comments
made about schools here, and said the quality of education provided and the
standards achieved are very high and compare favourably with state-supported
schools abroad.
We are, however, dedicated to the proposition that our schools can
be made better, and to that end have established curriculum renewal and
development teams to survey the whole content of primary and secondary education."
Mr. Canning agreed that there is the need to encourage a fuller range
of activities in schools and said schools are being actively urged to do
this in order to broaden the interests of pupils,
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