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Wednesday, January 7, 1976
ADJOURNMENT DEBATE ON EDUCATION WHITE PAPER
Government planners involved in the White Paper on Secondary
Education have made a thorough analysis of the situation and "now can see
pretty clearly what can be done and what cannot," the Director of Education, the
Hon. Kenneth Topley, told the Legislative Council today.
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"I am confident that this year I shall be able to make some progress
in implementing the White Paper," he said..
He said however that this was the most he should and could go and
he could not anticipate the budget proposals.
Mr. Topley was replying in an adjournment debate to three Unofficials
-- the Hon. Hilton Cheong-Leen, the Hon. Mrs. Joyce Symons and the Hon. Miss
Ko Siu-wah.-- who had urged the Government to implement the White Paper in
the coming financial year.
He said: "The Education Department and the Finance and Social
Services Branches of the Secretariat have been locked not in battle but in deep discussion of how we can meet the deep-felt wish of members, indeed of
the whole community, for decisive action in the realm of secondary education".
He said that children leaving primary school without completing it
were the "true drop-outs," as distinguished from those who had no secondary
education because no secondary places were available.
"They leave school of their own volition in many cases because they
don't like it and are therefore ill-prepared for life, vulnerable to bad
influences and in some cases turn to crime.
"I am establishing a departmental Working Party to look at the
age structure of our primary school population to find out why children
enter school late in some instances and leave school without completing the
course in others.
/"I am also