TNAG-0658-FCO40-807-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1977 — Page 117

C.S. 166

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review the instruction to reconsider the requirements for highly- educated young people. The Working Party's terms of reference then became:

"Having regard to the places that will be created by the approved programmes of expansion for secondary, technical and higher education, including the provision of nine years of subsidised general education for all;

(i)

(ii)

to advise on what further targets should be adopted for the growth of each sector of senior secondary and tertiary education;

to consider the main lines of development for each sector;

and to assess the costs involved.

!!

The Working Party has taken account of the findings in the Technical Education Programme Plan when formulating its recommendations for technical education. It was envisaged also that, once the Government had taken a view on the recommendations in the Working Party's Report, a Green Paper might be prepared presenting Government's proposals to the public. Accordingly, the Governor in his address to the Legislative Council in October 1976 announced that a working party was engaged in drawing up a report on what our future course should be for senior secondary and tertiary education and that this would seem to be a suitable subject for a Green Paper before any final decision were taken.

5

Regarding the instruction of the Governor in Council noted at (a) of paragraph 2 above, in October 1976 a report on the sixth form curriculum by an informal working committee of officers of the Education Department and secondary school principals was submitted to the Director of Education, and was subsequently made available to interested parties. The Report recommended the introduction in both Anglo-Chinese and Chinese Middle Schools of a common two year sixth form course leading to a common matriculation examination. Although Government representatives did not indicate during the consultations on the sixth form proposals that there was any intention of seeking to change the length of the Chinese University's undergraduate course, the desirability of having a common matriculation examination and a uniform length of undergraduate course in the two universities has been raised on several occasions, notably by three Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council during the debate on the Second Reading of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Bill on 8th December 1976. Should the proposed changes to the sixth form curriculum and examination

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