Wednesday, April 7, 1976
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"But even when all the school places are available it is clear that
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there will still be children of school age not at school not many but some
sone who drop out from primary schools now and others who will drop out of
secondary schools leaving empty school places behind them."
Mr. Bray said that nobody yet knew for certain what was the best sort
of service that should be provided for these children to help them grow up
as useful members of society or, at the very least, not to grow up as criminels.
Turning to the Pilot Youth Guidance Project being run by four youth
organisations, Mr. Bray pointed out that it was a two-year project ending at
the end of this year.
He expressed the hope that conclusions would rapidly be drawn and
programmes planned to extend appropriate services throughout Hong Kong.
"This will not be easy. The pilot project is on a small scale. It
is a social experiment in which the conclusions are unlikely to be as clearcut
as those of an experiment in natural sciences. And even if we know exactly
what to do there will be the question of the priority to be given to the new
services," he added.
Mr. Bray said he did not want to sound despondent that "we must
recognise that problems such as those of dropouts and juvenile delinquency
are found in even the wealthiest of societies and we do not know all the
answers,"
"More school places are one thing, and a very good thing," he said,
"but they will not bring to an end the problem of bringing up children for
whom schools alone are no use."
Mr. Bray said the Government was awaiting with concern the outcome
of the pilot project now under way.
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