XN000022-1973-07-24 — Page 4

Tuesday, July 24, 1973

3

The Education Department, he said, "has three main functions to

operate and improve if possible the existing system, that is the first

priority, the second is immediate short-term planning for projects that cannot wait often because the situation has changed and lastly long-range

planning, micro and macro planning in fact."

He emphasised that the department was vitally interested and

committed to planning for the future.

Mr. Lowe said that to ensure plans and objectives were clearly

understood, joint departmental and central government planning teams must be

set up if progress was to be made. But staff was in very short supply for

both running the present system and planning.

Serious staff shortages were being or were about to be felt in the

vital areas of teacher training, the examinations section and educational

television, but the Director made it clear that the fault did not lie with

the central government for not approving posts or the department for not

pressing hard enough.

"The shortage of staff is government-wide and the Education Department

is doing its best to improve the present system and plan sensibly for the

future like all branches of government. We would like to do better," he said.

The Development Section of the department will be providing 16 aided

secondary schools after the summer holidays, the provision of one secondary

school at a considerably better rate than one a month,

"The result is that 49 per cent of the 12-year-old age group will

be offered government aid assisted Form I places for September 1973," he said.

The Director praised the Salvation Army's invaluable contribution to

education in Hong Kong.

"The first Salvation Army secondary school indeed is expected to open

in September while the seven primary schools have reached a very creditable

standard," Mr. Lowe said.

0.

/4