TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 351

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The Hong Kong Education System

Chapter 7

The Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in the School System

Before the introduction of nine years' free, compulsory and

universal education the foremost planning target in education was the

provision of sufficient school places for an ever-growing population.

Pressures on time and space, together with competing claims by other

community services on the financial resources available, led to the'

introduction of measures such as bisessionalism and reduced staffing

ratios in schools which presented new challenges for those concerned

with educational standards in particular, for the teachers directly

affected. There was a general awareness in the community of the need

to protect educational standards in a period of rapid expansion, to which

the government fully subscribed by taking specific measures to effect

qualitative improvements wherever possible. A recurrent theme in the

public criticism of the earlier green and white papers, however, was the

subordination of quality to quantity in government educational planning.

But then, as now, the best schools were able to overcome physical constraints

and achieve effective results; and, legally, the Education Ordinance and

Regulations safeguarded minimum standards - for example, by requiring

schools to be provided with adequate apparatus, equipment and general

facilities, by limiting the operations of permitted teachers and by

providing the Director with controls over school syllabuses and textbooks.

Nevertheless, a strong competitive spirit began to develop among parents

and pupils as they sought to achieve the best advantages that education

could offer, and this spirit still prevails.

7.2

Pressures on children have undoubtedly been progressively

reduced, with the extension of universal education to nine years and with

increasing opportunities for post-compulsory education, both general and