TNAG-1073-FCO40-1323-Policy-of-the-Government-of-Hong-Kong-on-education-including-1981 — Page 508

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school places on the same side of the harbour as their homes.

Equipment and facilities are provided and maintained to the

standards laid down in the Education Regulations or in accordance

with policies approved from time to time.

(ii) Since September 1979 all government English schools have come

under the administration of the English Schools Foundation (ESF),

the objectives of the new arrangements being to achieve better

compliance with the principle of parity of subsidy between

English schools and the remainder of the public-sector institutions

as set out in the 1965 White Paper, and to devise a system of

financing which would permit variations from normal provision in

public-sector schools (such as improvements in class size and

teacher/class ratios) with all additional costs being met from

increased fees, should this be what the ESF desires.

(iii) It is the responsibility of the ESF to provide sufficient places

for English-speaking children for whom no suitable alternative

educational facilities are available in the public sector in

Hong Kong. Children whose knowledge of Chinese is limited but

whose mother tongue is not English are not considered to be the

primary responsibility of the ESF.

(iv) A committee was formed in 1979 to review the application of the

parity of subsidy principle to the English schools and the

Governor in Council accepted the committee's recommendations

that the present arrangements whereby the government pays for all

fee remission should continue in 1980-81, but as far as new

pupils are concerned remission will be allowed only to those with

no reasonable alternative opportunity for subsidised education

other than that provided in ESF schools. In order to provide

for hardship cases of pupils already enrolled, a special hardship

grant has been introduced but this will be phased out in not