XN000022-1974-03-06 — Page 4

Wednesday, March 6, 1974

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"he first is a suggestion for a counselling and guidance service on

a reaching out basis.

**The plan is to use youth or community centros as

operational bases to reach out to potential problem youths who have either

" he explained.

dropped out or are about to drop out of school,

Experienced youth agencies would be approached but the first step

would be to set up a steering group to consider the basic problems of

such a service. Initial projects would have to be run for a year to see

whether they were worthwhile.

At this stage, Mr. Bray said, nobody knows how many such projects

would be necessary.

The other proposal concerned an expansion of craft classes which ain

simply to get the children into a place where they could potter about undor

guidance with the sort of tools and materials that may be useful to then in

earning a living,

A. pilot scheme could be started on a trial basis, he said, to dovolop

leisure time activities classes similar to the 10 now operated by the

Boys and Girls Clubs Association

for children in the education gap.

For 1,000 children in 10 classes the annual cost would approach

$500,000, he said.

And if it worked, assuming it took two years to set up and evaluato

this schone, it would have to be expanded fifteen times to reach children not

at school or at work, and forty-five times to get all children in the education

gap, he added.

The cost would then be $22,5 million a year without building.

Mr. Bray said he knew that the Kwun Tong Vocational Training Centre

would like to help, and with their present buildings could take in 120 children at a cost of nearly $200,000 a year for instruction. The number of children

could be doubled to 240 in, say two or three years after some building extensions,

he noted.

Some 200 such contres would be required at a cost of $80 million if buildings could be found to cover all children not at school, he said.

Note to Editors:

Copies of the full text of Mr. Bray's spooch are boxed for collection.

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