TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 482

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The report states that "there is no doubt that most students taking

up post-Form V studies in Hong Kong do so in hopes of gaining a place

in one of the two local universities, the Polytechnic or in some other

tertiary institution either here or abroad. Even if the results gained

in the public examinations set at this level do not permit this goal to

be achieved, the results are still of value in seeking employment. Sixth

Form studies are therefore very much in demand. The competition for the

limited number of places available in tertiary education is so great that

students take as many of the available public examinations as they can.

It is the great number who aspire to tertiary education, and the relatively

small number who succeed in so doing, that is the crux of the problem of

Sixth Form education in Hong Kong. The two-year Advanced Level course

has no doubt served the University of Hong Kong well in providing a basis

for university studies. However, it does appear now to provide an

inappropriate background for developing a balanced, well-informed individual

either with or without subsequent university education." (Report, para. 1.2)

(To the Committee's comments could be added the statement that a number of

Upper Sixth students who fail to gain admission to the University of Hong

Kong have to wait an extra year before applying to and gaining admission

to the Chinese University: they then have to go through the whole of the

four-year degree course, thus taking five years instead of three to obtain

a degree.)

30.

Paragraph 1.2 of the Sixth Form Report is of particular interest

in showing the pattern of movement during the period 1976-1978 as fifth-

form students progressed through the sixth form. The figures show that

(i) about one-third of the Form/Middle V leavers

took up sixth-form courses, approximately 20 per

cent following one-year courses in Middle VI and.

80 per cent following two-year courses in Lower

and Upper Sixth forms;

(ii) approximately 80 per cent of the one-year course