TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 20

repetition, this latter problem could be accentuated by an earlier start.

2.24

If the age were to be lowered, it was estimated that this would involve a bulge of some 55,000 additional children going through the educational system which could if desired be smoothed out somewhat by progressively reducing the entry age over a four-year period. However, even with the phased approach the whole 55,000 children would be at the primary stage at the same time and subsequently at the secondary stage.

2.25

It was felt that the primary stage presented no insurmountable problems as at least at present there were empty classrooms available and sufficient teachers could be obtained. However, the secondary stage would present serious problems. The current expansion of secondary education and some of the means of achieving it such as by flotation of classes are already causing difficulties. Adding any additional burden to the secondary school system must inevitably be a matter for concern.

2.26

On balance therefore the Government favours either retaining the present position whereby primary school entry is compulsory at 6 years but voluntary down to 5 years 8 months or lowering the age of compulsory entry to 5 years 8 months. It is proposed that parents should be persuaded of the advantages of entering children at the first entry date after their attaining the age of 5 years 8 months and an amendment to the age of compulsory entry could be considered at a later stage.

2.27

In the unlikely event of all parents entering their children at the earlier age by 1983, there would then be about 15,000 additional children in the system. At a unit cost of $0.05m/class per annum the additional cost of these children receiving 6 years education in primary school would be about $120m. There would be a corresponding cost for their secondary education.

2.28

It is highly desirable that all children should start school at the same age and progress through school at the same rate. In this way the differences between children in any one class, which are already considerable due to different rates of development and different levels of ability, would be reduced to a minimum.

2.29

There are two major factors which prevent this ideal situation, namely, the difficulty of ensuring that children do start primary school at the same age and the current practice of repeating a year of education if a child does not appear to be making sufficient progress.

2.30

At present, as shown in Appendix 2B the age range in any class is quite considerable and while a comparison of Appendix 2A with Appendix 2B shows that the situation is improving gradually this will inevitably be a slow process unless steps are taken to accelerate it.

2.31

With this in mind steps are proposed elsewhere in this Green Paper to ensure that children do enter school at the same age and that not only is repetition of a class kept to a minimum but that transfer of children from one school to another is controlled so that undetected repetition of a class does not occur when this happens.

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