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Reply:
Mr President,
(a) Under the existing policy, the provision target of subsidised Secondary 4 places is 85%. Allocation of subsidised Secondary 4 places is made on a territory-wide basis, based on academic performance and parental choice. During the 1995 Junior Secondary Education Assessment (JSEA) exercise, 5 349 out of 64 265 (8.3%) Secondary 3 students were allocated subsidised Secondary 4 places in schools outside their own attending school districts i.e. districts in which the students attended Secondary 3.
(b) In 1995, 14.9% of students in new towns were allocated subsidised Secondary 4 places outside their own attending school districts. Although this is higher than the territory-wide average mentioned in paragraph (a) above, the majority of these cross-district allocations have been made to the neighbouring districts, as illustrated below:
Number of students (percentage) allocated to
their own attending school
District
districts
neighbouring districts*
Hong Kong Island
Outlying Islands
North
1,887 (87.77%)
59 (2.74%)
14 (0.65%)
16 (0.74%)
Yuen Long
2,730 (92.76%)
31 (1.05%)
21 (0.71%)
28 (0.95%)
Tuen Mun
5,066 (77.21%) 702 (10.7%)
77 (1.17%)
44 (0.67%)
(c) All allocations to the JSEA exercise including cross district allocations are based on expressed parental choice in a number of schools in order of preference which they wish their children to join having regard to the latter's academic performance; and