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give careful study to the recommendations made by the Working Group on the pattern of tertiary education and the place of technical education in it.
12. Lord Goronwy-Roberts directed attention to the Prime Minister's words on the subject and said that it was important that the basics of education at primary and secondary level should be finalised in advance of the proliferation of the educational system. It was important to assess need and identify the basics of the curricula. Officials were better placed to do this than anybody else. There would be no criticism from him or from the Prime Minister if Hong Kong were to approach the problem in this way. He had never assumed there was a lack of money. He asked how far fee-paying at all levels was regarded as a continuing element in the funding of the educational system. Sir M MacLehose said that it was so regarded. Primary education was free but thereafter fees were charged which represented a small part of the total cost. There were arrangements for assisting those who could not afford to pay even the low fees charged. He was not considering the introduction of free secondary education. The same arrangements and thinking applied to tertiary education. Lord Goronwy-Roberts asked how much it would cost to make the public secondary school system free. In asking this he had of course no intention of being unfair to the private system.
Mr Haddon-Cave said that free secondary education could hardly be intro- duced without converting all-private schools to the public sector. He did not, off the cuff, know how much this would cost, but there was no demand for it. Lord Goronwy-Roberts thought it was a question that was going to be asked frequently.
13. Sir M MacLehose said that some of those newly appointed to LegCo were first-class, particularly Fr McGovern and Miss Bennett. The trade unionist and the bus conductor were taking longer to find their feet. This was not surprising: he had heard it said that it took at least a year-and-a-half to learn the ropes. In the end he expected that the bus conductor would make more of a contribution to LegCo than the trade unionist.
14.
Mrs Elliott's appointment to LegCo, if made, would be greeted with stormy applause by some UK MPs. He had talked about this to Mr Jeremy Thorpe, MP, who had said that Mrs Elliott was upset at not being included amongst those recently appointed. Mr Thorpe had told him that he realised why Mrs Elliott could not now be appointed but that it was a pity she had not been appointed 20 years earlier. The Governor con- sidered that her appointment now would be very unacceptable to many people in Hong Kong, and that it would be divisive and disruptive of the work of LegCo. It was, of course, his responsibility to see that LegCo operated smoothly. Lord Goronwy-Roberts said that he was not making a special case of Mrs Elliott. When, from time to time, Members put for- ward her name, his reply was that it was necessary to take into account
This was all manner of points in considering those to be appointed a question entirely for the Governor's judgement and he was concerned only that they both took a similar line.
15. As to his public line on pressure from MG, Sir M MacLahose said that this was that there was naturally a constant dialogue between London and Hong Kong. HMG was interested in many aspects of Hong Kong's govern- ment and constitutionally responsible for it. The dialogue was a healthy and constructive one. Everything he had recommended or done for Hong Kong
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