TNAG-0795-FCO40-999-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1978 — Page 176

The main issues

in social class mix may increase participation during the 1980s. This would be a purely demographic factor, reflecting the fact that the birthrate in recent years has declined least sharply in professional and managerial families from which a large proportion of present young home entrants to higher education are drawn. But there is also the possibility of taking positive steps as a matter of social policy to encourage participation by children of manual workers to approach more closely the level of participation by children of non-manual workers.

32. Recent evidence suggests that youngsters take their decisions about whether or not to aim for higher education well before they reach the age of 18; and that social, cultural and peer-group influences are crucial factors in those decisions. While it may be difficult to point to any particular measures which would have a swift and significant impact on participation by children of manual workers, it is at least possible that participation by this group will by the 1990s be as much affected by the gathering impact of policies in the fields of housing, health and the social services generally as by educational policies. Moreover, in the educational field itself, comprehensive reorganisation is already transforming secondary schooling; when this process is complete no children will be educated in institutions which, by their status, nature and organisation, are apt to cut off their pupils from higher education opportunities. In the climate which reorganisation will have created, higher education may be made a more attractive prospect for young people from poorer home backgrounds.

33. Another possibility is that the demand, which is already beginning to make itself felt, to devote more educational resources to those already in employment might result in more systematic opportunities for recurrent education for mature students. Priority might be given at first to those who had missed higher education opportunities at normal entry age. But this might not preclude more radical developments, such as a systematic scheme for continuing education at an advanced level, or indeed at a non-advanced level. This kind of possibility would be of direct concern not only to the education service, but also more widely, and particularly to the TUC and the CBI in so far as it might have implications for employment levels and for the terms and conditions of employment of individuals. Any more detailed examination of the possibility of increasing participation by those in employment would need to take this aspect fully into account.

34. It must be recognised that substantial changes of far-reaching social importance are involved in this Model. There may be losses as well as gains; and the resource implications are great. It is unlikely that any of the developments envisaged could happen without a major lead from Government. This might mean new financial incentives to encourage take-up by people in employment (whether this was in the form of paid educational leave for continuing education or more generous grants for mature students on full-time courses at degree or equivalent levels) and perhaps also some compensation for employers. On the other hand, this prospect needs to be viewed in the perspective of continuous social, economic and technological change, which may demand more emphasis on continued education, and may be accompanied by changes in patterns of employment or of unemployment.

35. As already emphasised, the five Models described in this paper are not so much policy options as the strands out of which a policy might be woven. The weight to be placed on each of them is a matter of judgment.

36. The paper has deliberately concentrated on a single problem - the implications of projected changes in total higher education numbers in the

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