TNAG-2598-FCO40-3786-Appointment-of-Chris-Patten-as-new-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--Ap-1992 — Page 114

340

Principal

D. J. James

B.Ed. Wales, M.Ed. Hong Kong

1st May 1992

00

The Rt. Hon & Mrs C Patten Conservative Party Chairman Conservative Central Office Smith House

Smith Square

London

for Parter,

You may wish before I draft a reply.

may wish to consider this

Pl. discus А пре

нкс

CICEW!

010

1

ISLAND SCHOOL

20 BORRETT ROAD HONG KONG TEL: 524 7135

FAX: 840 1673

Replied

0/1

8/7

Dear Mr & Mrs Patten

First may I offer my congratulations on your appointment to the Governorship of Hong Kong. People here are, for the most part very pleased, but I do not think your task in the coming five years will be particularly easy. Hong Kong continues to divide into two camps whose positions are, in part, mutually incompatible and whatever decisions are taken, one side or the other will be disappointed. My purpose in writing, however, is not only to send congratulations on your recent appointment, but to offer some assistance in the education of your children. The newspapers in Hong Kong have been full of the fact that you are to bring at least one of your daughters and possibly two. You need not have a concern about the educational standards in Hong Kong for they are excellent and compare favourably with the Independent sector in the United Kingdom. Our own A level pass rate last year was 94%. The problem rather, will be one of choice. There are many schools in Hong Kong offering secondary education of every type:-

There are many Roman Catholic Schools and as a practising Catholic these may hold particular appeal, but they are mainly for the children of Hong Kong Chinese residents as the international schools have taken away many of their foreign students in recent years. They prepare children for the Hong Kong School Certificate and Advanced Level Examinations.

The English Schools Foundation runs five secondary schools in Hong Kong which have the closest links with the UK. They are home centres for London Examining Groups and offer GCSE, A and AS Levels. Island School, for example, offers A Level Theatre Studies and AS Level Religious Studies, two of the subjects mentioned in the newspaper articles. Each year they send close to two hundred students to British Universities.

The French International School and the German Swiss International School are supported by their respective Governments, but in order to keep up numbers they run English streams offering the International G C S E and A Levels at the German Swiss and International Baccalaureate at the French International School.