23
Wednesday, October 17, 1973
"In keeping with this the Board also recommends that the early years
of secondary education should as far as possible be based on a common core of
instruction irrespective of the type of school," the Governor said.
Regarding the invitation to the Board to advise on the extent to
which secondary education should be free, Sir Murray said the Board concluded
that "in the present circumstances of Hong Kong there is no compelling need
at present to provide free education in the lower secondary ranges for those
able to pay the highly subsidized fees. The Board nevertheless recommended
that the possibility of free education should be kept under regular review."
He said the Beard endorsed existing government policy that no child
should be denied a place in a government or assisted secondary school on
financial grounds.
The report concluded that within the present fee structure and fee
remission scheme there was already adequate provision to ensure this ain.
The Governor was extremely grateful to the Board for the work done
by members. "It is most reassuring to have this corpus of expert opinion
as a basis for planning the further expansion of secondary education."
The government, Sir Murray said, "propuses to follow a similar
procedure with this report as with that on the five-year plan for Social
Welfare last year. It will table the report in this Council forthwith as a
Green Paper."
The public and interested bodies will be allowed an adequate period
to comment after Councillors had expressed their views.
In the light of this discussion, the Governor said, "a White Paper
will be submitted for consideration by the Executive and Legislative Councils
embodying the final phased plan for reaching our targets.
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