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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1980
RECALLING THE TIME WHEN HE JOINED THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 26 YEARS AGO, MR WATERS SAID THERE WERE THEN ONLY 20 PEOPLE ENGAGED FULL-TIME IN VOCATIONAL TYPE TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN THE WHOLE OF HONG KONG COMPARED WITH WELL OVER 1 100 TODAY.
MORRISON HILL WAS THE FIRST TECHNICAL INSTITUTE BUT IN THE FIVE YEARS BETWEEN 1975 AND 1979, A FURTHER FOUR TECHNICAL INSTITUTES CAME ON STREAM,
+THERE MUST BE FEW PLACES IN THE WORLD THAT CAN BOAST THE GROWTH THAT TOOK PLACE IN TECHNICAL EDUCATION, AS DID HONG KONG, IN THE 1970'S, HE SAID.
MR WATERS RECALLED THAT IN THE EARLY 1970'S PEOPLE WERE RATHER PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE PROPOSED EXPANSION OF PART-TIME DAY-RELEASE COURSES.
+THEY HAVE BEEN PROVED WRONG. IN 1970 WE HAD LESS THAN 600 PART-TIME DAY-RELEASE STUDENTS AT MORRISON HILL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. DURING THE LAST ACADEMIC YEAR, 1979/80, WE HAD A TOTAL OF ALMOST 8 000 PART-TIME DAY-RELEASE STUDENTS IN ALL OUR FIVE TECHNICAL INSTITUTES.
+THIS GIVES US AN EXPANSION OF SOMETHING LIKE THIRTEEN FOLD, IN THIS MODE OF STUDY, WITHIN A TEN-YEAR PERIOD, + MR WATERS SAID.
AND WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN HONG KONG?
MR WATERS, ANSWERING HIS OWN QUESTION, EXPECTED THAT IT MOULD CONTINUE TO KEEP ON BUILDING UP AND AS A RESULT REMAIN AUSPICIOUS.
+EXTRA FLOORS AND ANNEXES WILL BE ADDED TO EXISTING TECHNICAL INSTITUTES AND THE SIXTH TECHNICAL INSTITUTE SHOULD COME ON STREAM, AT TUEN MUN, HOPEFULLY BY 1985.
+ IN ADDITION, LARGE NUMBER OF DIPLOMA AND CERTIFICATE COURSES ARE PLANNED TO BE TRANSFERRED FROM THE POLYTECHNIC TO THE TECHNICAL INSTITUTES OVER THE FOUR-YEAR PERIOD COMMENCING IN SEPTEMBER 1981.
*WITH RAPID ADVANCES BEING MADE IN TECHNOLOGY, TECHNICAL EDUCATION MUST INCREASE IN IMPORTANCE AND I CAN FORESEE CONSIDERABLE DEVELOPMENTS TAKING PLACE IN THE DECADE THAT LIES AHEAD, HE SAID.
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