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Government determined to provide modern education
The Government will continue with its efforts to create a modern educational system to serve the entire community, the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said today (Wednesday).
In his annual Policy Address to the Legislative Council, Mr Patten said the Government would spend $140 million to ensure that children were not denied access to kindergartens because their parents could not afford the fees.
At present, 85 per cent of all children between the ages of three and five attend kindergartens.
"I believed that good pre-schooling facilities make a substantial contribution to a child's ability to do well later on," Mr Patten said.
He said while more than half of all kindergarten teachers had already been trained to meet prescribed standard of qualifications, another 1,130 serving teachers would be trained this year.
Mr Patten also said the Government had this year provided $642 million for training courses for teachers to ensure that teachers were fully equipped with the professional skills they needed to help students get the most out of school.
On under-achieving children, Mr Patten said: "We are spending $340 million to build ten new schools by 1999 specially designed to cater for the needs of poorly motivated students and those with severe learning problems."
To offer an environment in which both teachers and students could perform at their best, the Governor said the Government was building additional facilities in a total of 240 schools.
"This programme costs $2.4 billion and will be completed by 1997. We have already air-conditioned 413 schools to reduce the disruption caused by excessive noise pollution," he said.
End/Wednesday, October 11, 1995