HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL
28 June 1989 香港立法局——————————一九八九年六月二十八日
68
their studies. Young people aged 15 to 18 are covered by regulations aimed at protecting their health and safety. These regulations are enforced by an effective and dedicated team of labour inspectors.
Our basic provision in the areas of education and protection against exploitation thus lays a firm foundation for the welfare of our children and young people. It is because we have built this firm foundation that we are now able to pay more attention to the quality of our education and to focus on the various issues which Members have raised in this debate.
Pre-school education
Sir, I like to try out my speeches on my wife in draft to see if they make sense. When she read my original draft for this section of my speech she told me it sounded exactly like an excerpt from "Yes, Minister" and was totally incomprehensible. I said to her "Good! That is exactly what I was hoping." However, since then I have had a slight twinge of conscience and felt I should make more effort to come clean. As Members know only too well, we have taken a long time considering the Education Commission's proposals for pre- primary education. The reasons for this I have already explained a number of times in this Council. I do not think it is necessary for me to do so yet again. Our priority remains to obtain policy approval as soon as possible for a package of improvements as close as possible to the spirit of the commission's recommendations. We have not, of course, closed our mind, the door to other proposals, and we are consulting with people working in this sector and have promised to consider some ideas they have recently put to us. Once the main outlines of a policy have been approved, our intention is to involve those working in the pre-primary sector in a joint working group, which will monitor progress on implementing the policy, advise us on how to deal with the practical problems involved in unifying all services for pre-school children and consider any new proposals which may be made.
Medium of instruction
One aspect of our education system which has aroused particular concern for a number of years, and has been raised again in this debate, is the question of the medium of instruction. For various reasons a majority of parents want their children to become fluent in English, and so choose English-medium secondary schools. We need to do more to ensure that children studying in the English stream are able to learn effectively through English, and to ensure also that Chinese-medium schools are seen by parents as offering just as good an
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