CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
Chapter 5
Rural Schools
5.1
The Government has carefully considered the special
problems posed by primary schools in rural areas. It is
recognised that these schools have been developed, usually
as a result of local initiative, to provide a basic
education for village children. The introduction of nine
years
of free
and compulsory education
in
accordance with the 1974 White Paper has meant that most of
these children have to continue their education in large
centrally located secondary schools. This has imposed a strain
on the village schools and the children who attend them as
they find it extremely difficult to achieve the standards
necessary to benefit from the education provided at the secondary
level. In order to reap maximum benefit from the years of study
at the junior secondary level, it is important that children
should receive a sound basic education at the primary level.
5.2
It is recognised that very small schools are by and
large educationally inefficient and it is therefore considered
that wherever possible, but without causing hardship, schools
of less than six operating classes should be closed. Notwith-
standing this general principle, there may well be cases,
particularly in the more remote parts of the New Territories
or where schools serve a specific, compact community, where it
is essential or desirable for small schools to continue in
operation.
Such cases should, however, be regarded as exceptional.
CONFIDENTIAL
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