TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 245

3.5

· 3-

have far-reaching implications which impinge simultaneously upon the

work of many different departments and non-government agencies. The

co-ordinating role of the Secretary is important in such cases in the

promotion of cohesive policies which might otherwise become fragmented.

The Secretary for Social Services at present supervises the

entire education programme area. Direct control of the various services

with educational implications is, however, shared among a number of

individual officers or institutions, as shown in the table at paragraph

3.6 below. In some cases public officers are charged with specific

statutory responsibilities: Section 4 of the Education Ordinance, for

example, states that "the Director (of Education) shall be charged with

the superintendence of matters relating to education in Hong Kong" and

that "the Director shall promote the education of the people of Hong Kong

and control and direct education policy." The Director's powers are

limited by Sections 2 and 6 of the Ordinance. Section 2 states that the

Ordinance shall not apply to the two universities, the Hong Kong Polytechnic

or any post-secondary college registered under the Post Secondary Colleges

Ordinance. (Under the latter ordinance the Director of Education is at

present responsible for the registration and control of the Approved Post

Secondary Colleges: however, amendments are now being considered to

reflect the new role of the colleges as described in the 1978 White Paper.)

Section 6 provides for the power of direction by the Governor: under the

system described in paragraph 3.4 the policy Secretary holds a watching

brief on behalf of the Governor in this regard.

3.6

The following table shows the present division of responsibility

for programme areas with major educational implications: