XN000022-1976-01-07 — Page 2

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Wednesday, January 7, 1976

ADJOURNMENT DEBATE ON EDUCATION WHITE PAPER

Government planners involved in the White Paper on Secondary

Education have made a thorough analysis of the situation and "now can see

pretty clearly what can be done and what cannot," the Director of Education, the

Hon. Kenneth Topley, told the Legislative Council today.

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"I am confident that this year I shall be able to make some progress

in implementing the White Paper," he said..

He said however that this was the most he should and could go and

he could not anticipate the budget proposals.

Mr. Topley was replying in an adjournment debate to three Unofficials

-- the Hon. Hilton Cheong-Leen, the Hon. Mrs. Joyce Symons and the Hon. Miss

Ko Siu-wah.-- who had urged the Government to implement the White Paper in

the coming financial year.

He said: "The Education Department and the Finance and Social

Services Branches of the Secretariat have been locked not in battle but in deep discussion of how we can meet the deep-felt wish of members, indeed of

the whole community, for decisive action in the realm of secondary education".

He said that children leaving primary school without completing it

were the "true drop-outs," as distinguished from those who had no secondary

education because no secondary places were available.

"They leave school of their own volition in many cases because they

don't like it and are therefore ill-prepared for life, vulnerable to bad

influences and in some cases turn to crime.

"I am establishing a departmental Working Party to look at the

age structure of our primary school population to find out why children

enter school late in some instances and leave school without completing the

course in others.

/"I am also