-
- 18.
Government's policy of providing nine years of free and compulsory education for our children from the age of 6 to 15 is in line with that of many countries and territories, including some advanced ones. In addition, we provide heavily subsidised senior secondary education or technical education for about 95% of our children beyond the age of 15. Also, to ensure that no one is deprived of a place in our education system because of a lack of means, we offer financial assistance to needy students. In the circumstances, we have no plan to extend the existing 9-year period of free education to 11 years.
As regards part (b) of the question, we look forward to receiving the Board of Education's advice by the end of this year. We will decide whether to consult the public in the light of the Board's advice.
End
Emergency ambulance service performance target
Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
A resolution was passed at the joint meeting of the Panels on Health Services and Security held on 15 April this year urging the Government to use the 'response time' instead of the 'travel time' as the performance target for the emergency ambulance service (EAS). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
of the additional numbers of ambulances, ambulance crew members as well as fire and ambulance equipment required as a result of adopting the 'response time' as the performance target for the EAS; and
whether provision will be made in the 1997-98 financial year to enable the Fire Services Department to put into effect the adoption of the 'response time' as the performance target for the EAS?