TNAG-0795-FCO40-999-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1978 — Page 118

3. How much school education for all?

3.1

The Government committed itself in the 1974 White Paper, Secondary Education in Hong Kong over the Next Decade, to providing nine years of general school education for all, six years in a primary and three years in a secondary school. From 1978, no-one will be denied a subsidised secondary school place because he did not perform well enough during his primary education. A controlled scheme of allocation taking account of parents' preferences will determine which primary school leavers should enter those secondary schools where competition for places is keen.

3.2

Most countries, in Asia and in the West, provide such a period of "universal" school education; in some countries this is enforced by measures of compulsory school attendance. Many Asian countries provide only six or seven years of "universal" school education, though some provide for nine years. In Western Europe the normal pattern is eight or nine years. A few countries, e.g. USA, provide more. The UK is exceptional in providing for 11 years of compulsory school attendance, between children's 5th and 16th birthdays, though this is a comparatively recent development. Until 1972 compulsory education in the UK extended only up to a student's 15th birthday. In that year it was raised to 16, but the effects of this change have proved to be controversial.

3.3

In Hong Kong, courses of secondary education have for many years been of five years duration, but this was at a time when only a minority of students proceeded to subsidised secondary education. The 1974 White Paper put forward the concept of a three-year secondary education course. More schools with an "asymmetrical" class structure were planned; these are schools which provide all of their subsidised places in Forms I-III, though some Form IV-V classes operate in such schools on a private basis. About half of the new secondary schools to be completed between 1976 and 1981 are of the asymmetrical design. Since the introduction of extended day and flotation in 1976, arrangements which permit a staggering of classes throughout the day and a more intensive use of teaching areas, Government and aided schools also provide more streams in Forms I-III than in Forms IV-V.

6