TNAG-0795-FCO40-999-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1978 — Page 154

11. Adult education

11.1

Adult education covers a wide spectrum of courses designed to meet a demand for general, vocational or recreational education from persons of widely differing aptitude and attain- ment who are no longer within formal education. These courses are usually provided during the evening, so that they are available to persons in full-time employment. Adult education courses may be divided into three principal types:-

(i)

the higher education courses run by the Extra-Mural Departments of the universities;

(ii) the multi-media services, represented

principally by Instructional Television, which is operated jointly by Commercial Television (CTV), the Chinese University and the Polytechnic; (Educational Television, operated jointly by the Education Department and Radio-Television Hong Kong (RTHK), is designed mainly for use by schools but has a small role in adult education);

(iii) the general education and special interest

courses provided in the Education Department's Adult Education Centres and similar courses provided by voluntary agencies and other private organisations which do not assume a specific level of attaniment; these courses include the retrieval education for those who have not taken their education beyond the primary school level.

Evening courses are provided also by the technical institutes and the Polytechnic, and these courses are supported by adults as well as by recent school leavers.

11.2

The courses run by the Extra-Mural Departments will continue to develop in line with the growth of the universities. Financing policy is to cover costs and hence fees are at quite a high level, but enrolments nonetheless remain high.

11.3

There would seem to be scope for a pilot programme of part-time degrees designed for mature students rather than school leavers. This programme might be developed over the next decade to provide for about 500 students at each University.

42