XN000022-1994-12-09 — Page 15

-

13.

Opportunity for education opens to everyone

Everyone who has the desire and the determination to do better for themselves enjoys every opportunity to get a better education, the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said today (Friday).

Speaking at the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony for the Open Learning Institute, Mr Patten described the institute as an excellent resource for the people of Hong Kong, responding to and encouraging the desire for self improvement.

He was pleased to note that a Research Fund had been set up for adult education to help develop the institute into a centre of excellence in the study of adult learning for the whole region.

He noted that the institute had already been an outstanding success. Opening with less than 5,000 students in 1989, you have this October enrolled well over 18,000.

"All who have worked so hard to acheive this success - the exellent faculty, good administrators and hard working students all can take great pride in their accomplishments," he said.

Mr Patten pointed out that the foundation of the institute's permanent campus held out the promise of better facilities, of room for growth, of sustained commitment to open learning in Hong Kong.

End/Friday, December 9, 1994

TPB reviews annex building application

The Town Planning Board reviewed the application for the proposed Legislative Council annex building at Chater Garden, Central this (Friday) morning.

At the meeting, representatives of the applicant explained in detail the need for consolidated facilities for the Legislative Council, the difficulties regarding the site selection for the building, technical constraints on the site under application, the feasibility of retaining some of the existing trees within the site and transplanting others, and the merits of the present proposal.