XN000022-1976-04-07 — Page 10

Wednesday, April 7, 1976

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"But even when all the school places are available it is clear that

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there will still be children of school age not at school not many but some

sone who drop out from primary schools now and others who will drop out of

secondary schools leaving empty school places behind them."

Mr. Bray said that nobody yet knew for certain what was the best sort

of service that should be provided for these children to help them grow up

as useful members of society or, at the very least, not to grow up as criminels.

Turning to the Pilot Youth Guidance Project being run by four youth

organisations, Mr. Bray pointed out that it was a two-year project ending at

the end of this year.

He expressed the hope that conclusions would rapidly be drawn and

programmes planned to extend appropriate services throughout Hong Kong.

"This will not be easy. The pilot project is on a small scale. It

is a social experiment in which the conclusions are unlikely to be as clearcut

as those of an experiment in natural sciences. And even if we know exactly

what to do there will be the question of the priority to be given to the new

services," he added.

Mr. Bray said he did not want to sound despondent that "we must

recognise that problems such as those of dropouts and juvenile delinquency

are found in even the wealthiest of societies and we do not know all the

answers,"

"More school places are one thing, and a very good thing," he said,

"but they will not bring to an end the problem of bringing up children for

whom schools alone are no use."

Mr. Bray said the Government was awaiting with concern the outcome

of the pilot project now under way.

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