TNAG-0971-FCO40-1190-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-in-the-UK-1980 — Page 187

E.R.

10.

Education

Refugees need not only housing but, as I have said, survival skills.

This means, above all, the ability to communicate in English.

For this reason the refugees are given in their time in reception centres intensive tuition in English at Government expense. Tay

I say how particularly impressed I was by the education being

provided when I recently went to Thorney Island - which is not

to say that others are not also doing a very good job in this field.

But it takes longer than the three or four months spent in these

centres to become fully proficient in English or even, in some

cases, to acquire the skills needed to hold down jobs. The main

burden of providing English courses will fall on the local

education authorities in the areas of resettlement but the

voluntary agencies are now aware of the need to complement this

provision and I welcome the initiative taken by the agencies in

looking into what the voluntary sector can provide to meet this

need. The Government appreciate the special needs of refugee

students in further and higher education and are giving

sympathetic consideration to the issue of the level of fees

applicable to refugees and their eligibility for awards for

further and higher education.

/Employment