TNAG-0796-FCO40-1000-Policy-of-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-1979 — Page 2

XCC(78)94..

Present Policy

4

The policy relating to English-speaking education in Hong Kong is set out in the 1965 White Paper on Education Policy; the two basic elements of this policy are:

(a) that it should be for the most part in the

pattern of English State education; and

(b) that where such education was more costly

thanthat provided for the majority in the public sector, the difference in cost should be met through fees so that the general level of subsidy would remain the same for all sectors of the community.

The problems arising out of the financing of English speaking education were examined by a Select Committee of the Legislative Council in 1972, and the Governor in Council approved a set of principles for the long-term financial arrangements for the English Schools Foundation, including a Code of Aid, in September 1973. ·

6.

5

The starting point for the present review was the increasing pressure from the English Schools Foundation and the Joint Council of Parent-Teacher Associations for substantial improvements in staffing standards and other facilities, based on the argument that such improvements are necessary if the education provided is to be similar in quality to that provided in state schools in the United Kingdom. Even though the English Schools Foundation and Joint Council indicated that the improve- ments would be financed by increased fees, it was considered that to accept the proposals would involve too great a departure from the principles which have hitherto governed the relation-: ships between the English-speaking schools and the rest of the public sector, whereby there are basic common standards between the two types of schools in relation to such matters as class size and teacher/class ratios. The introduction of free and compulsory junior secondary education, which has necessitated the provision of uniform standards and the absorption of "tong fai" expenses into the Code of Aid, will henceforth also make it more difficult to allow aided schools to deviate from the norm in this way without a new formula which is capable of general application.

The Director of Audit has recently pointed out that the financing arrangements approved by the Governor in Council in 1973 have had the effect that the actual subsidy per student to the Island School has exceeded that paid to a comparable Anglo-Chinese secondary school by about $1, 200 per annum. It is difficult to reconcile this degree of difference with the principle of parity of subsidy.

CONFIDENTIAL