TNAG-1856-FCO40-2631-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 176

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

香港立法局

28 June 1989

一九八九年六月二十八日

40

DR. IP: Sir, ten years ago in 1979, I, Miss Maria TAM and Mr. SZETO WAH, among others, were involved in setting up a Hong Kong International Year of the Child Commission to address whether services for children in Hong Kong is in keeping with the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child. An evaluation report was published in both English and Chinese to cover topics on the child before birth, education, personal and social development, child abuse, the disabled child, environment and child, legal aspects and child health in Hong Kong, the latter two of which were written by Miss TAM and myself. This book gave an in-depth account of the then existing services for children in Hong Kong, as well as setting out proposals on how best we can improve them in meeting the rights of children. Now after 10 years, it is most appropriate to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Child with a motion by this Council to urge the Government and the community to take action on protecting the rights and improving the well-being of children in Hong Kong.

I took the liberty, Sir, to send all Members of this Council and you yourself, Sir, a copy of the 1979 Evaluation Report of the Hong Kong International Year of the Child Commission. Outdated as it may be, it serves as a baseline to which we can monitor what we have achieved so far and in particular as a reference to what we failed to meet even after 10 years.

Sir, it is true that we have gone a long way and I will cite some examples. On the education front, children no longer have to attend evening primary schools; we now have nine years free education meaning that every child has an opportunity to attend secondary school; staff to student ratio at schools has been increased; Government is beginning to offer training to kindergarten teachers and a subsidy is given such that all children from poor families can attend kindergarten. Schooling for handicapped children is no longer a luxury of a few lucky ones but it has become the rule. On the legal front, the concept of family courts has been partly introduced with experienced judges sitting on the 14th floor of the Supreme Court to deal with matrimonial matters; the introduction of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill last year which in part will protect children under the care of mentally ill persons; and paid maternity leave effectively protect the environment of the unborn child.

However, we have still a long way to go. The majority of kindergarten teachers are still unqualified and are failing to maximize the full intellectual development potential of children at this most important period of a child's life. Kindergarten premises lack space for children to play so as to maximize their physical growth potentials. Primary schools, though with reasonable space, fail to allow adequate time for physical education because of their bisessional status.