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Subject to the approval of the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, the Administration proposes to implement the improved Scheme from the 1996/97 school year onwards.
Mr Wong emphasised that the 1996/97 Budget had made sufficient provision for implementing all the new initiatives in education set out in the Government's 1995 Policy Commitments and that the ambitious programme of ongoing improvements was in good progress.
On special education, Mr Wong reiterated that the Government would consider carefully the outcome of the review undertaken by the Board of Education when it was completed in the middle of the year.
He pointed out that the Government had accepted all the recommendations of the Education Commission's Final Report No. 6 on enhancing language proficiency and had set aside the necessary resources in the Budget to implement the phase one programme.
In response to comments on the distribution of resources between tertiary education and basic education, Mr Wong stressed that the Government adopted a "total and building-block approach towards education."
"Given that we have achieved the target of providing 14,500 first-year-first degree places, thereby enabling 18% of our relevant age group to receive tertiary education, it should enter a period of consolidation.
"Our main emphasis now is to improve the quality of our graduates and to find ways to reduce costs. We will work closely with the University Grants Committee and I expect to receive their advice later this year," he said.
Mr Wong pointed out that one of his top priorities was to continue to seek new resources for basic education and to enhance its quality in a comprehensive manner. He noted that the Government also had to make the most cost-effective use of existing resources which were vast by themselves.
Turning to the manpower programme, Mr Wong announced that the Government would shortly commission a consultancy to review the strategy, direction, funding arrangements and management structure of the Employees Retraining Scheme (ERS).
"The study will assess the effectiveness of the various types of retraining courses in meeting the requirements of employers and the retraining needs of workers.