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either event this would enable Government to buy more

Form 4 and 5 places from the private sector and possibly

permit the JSEA to be phased out at an earlier date. Government will explore the possibility of encouraging

private secondary schools to do so.

I thank Dr Ho Kam-fai and Dr Henrietta Ip for

drawing our attention again to the importance of

vocational and technical education. The Government is

determined to provide a balanced development of general and vocational education at the post-Form 3 level to meet different student aptitude as well as the

community's needs for different educated talents, and to

make these two equally important forms of education

attractive to Form 3 leavers. The Government is obliged

to the Vocational Training Council, chaired by

Mr Francis Tien, for its proposal to introduce full-time

bridging courses in the technical institutes to enable

selected capable graduates of one-year full-time

craft-level courses to be admitted to technician

courses. The first bridging course will be offered as a

pilot scheme in the academic year 1985-86 and the Administration will study the results of this pilot

scheme to determine whether it should be implemented on

a wider scale.

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