it could equally well be said that it was introduced with the advice of many educators. He says also that most of the recommendations of the Marsh/Sampson report remain
unimplemented.
The unimplemented parts are largely those to which educators and teachers have objected; those parts which attempted to show how money could be saved were strenuously opposed.
(a) Again, the Department can vary curricula, broaden the
base of education, etc., in Government schools and tries
to do so.
But it cannot enforce its ideas on other schools. Since, for example, parents and students want a grammar school' education, they stay away from Government schools which try to provide something else and go to the non-Government schools which pander to
them and blame the Government for it.
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3. Some of Mr. Speak's criticisms (e.g. about the examination for entry into secondary schools and the gap between the primary school leaving age and the minimum age of employment) would undoubtedly be accepted as valid by the educational authorities in Hong Kong; these are matters to which they have been and are at the present time giving attention.
4. As is so often the case with educationalists, a number of Mr. Speak's suggested solutions to Hong Kong's education problems are counsels of perfection ignoring the administrative problems involved and, more important still, the majority views of the community itself on the type of educational system that it wants. He suggests, for example, that "the proper course of action would be to make all schools charge an economic fee, and to utilise public funds to subsidise, wholly or in part, individual children rather than the schools themselves". It is indeed open to argument whether this would be the proper course, but Mr. Speak must know that when such a policy was propounded in Hong Kong it was strongly
The policy is to keep opposed by public opinion and not pursued. fees low in Government schools and, by subventions from public funds, in aided schools (fees were further lowered in the recent budget) and to operate additionally a fee remission scheme for
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