1965 — Page 249

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

bly been denied the right by Government to give a reply to me in this Council on subjects outside the scope of the Council.

Alternatively, it would be fitting and proper for a statement to be made at the time the Official members reply by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who is regarded by many as the protector of Chinese residents in Hong Kong.

The Younger Generation

Paragraph 24-(A) of the Hong Kong Declaration of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms states:

"Every person has the right to an education. Education shall be free and compulsory, at least in the primary stage. Secondary, technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the first basis of merit."

Hong Kong, Mr. Chairman, is still far away from the time when every child can enjoy the right of free and compulsory primary education.

There are still between 50,000 to 80,000 Hong Kong-born children of primary school age who are not in school. Is the Government going to allow these unfortunate children to grow up into illiterate adults?

Does the Government not have a crash programme which can bring about universal primary education within the next 3 or 4 years?

Surely it should be possible for a relatively prosperous Colony like Hong Kong, which balances its budget almost every year—except when it grants well-deserved salary increases to its loyal Civil Servants—to have universal primary education within the next few years?

It is not enough to say that by 1971 there will be a school place for every child that wants it. We should proceed even further. We should have some form of universal and compulsory primary education adapted to the Hong Kong situation for all children by 1971.

Several months ago I had asked the Commissioner for Resettlement to see what he could do to assist children in resettlement estates to attend primary school by advising residents which schools had vacant school places. In some estates there were several thousand children not going to school even though there were many vacant school places.

It would be helpful if the Commissioner for Resettlement could give a detailed report of what has been done in this respect.

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Apart from primary education facilities, I am equally concerned about the inadequate facilities for job training and for finding employment for young people living within our resettlement estates.

I ask that the Resettlement Department take steps to arrange with Government to establish youth employment centres and provide more vocational and handicraft training centres in all resettlement estates.

Such training centres would be helpful too for many of the young unlicensed hawkers who are forced to hawk illegally because they cannot be issued with a pedlar's licence until they reach the age of 18 and because they must hawk so that their families can live at or just above subsistence level.

In the Juvenile Courts, over 80% of the monthly turnover of about 1,000 cases are hawker cases, mostly for hawking without a licence or for hawking within a prohibited area. Some of the children have been appearing 3 to 6 times a month for several years in the Juvenile Court. Yet these children feel no embarrassment or shame to appear in Court regularly; they feel that they are doing their share to help their family make a livelihood. Do you think, Mr. Chairman, that this kind of social environment for these children is conducive towards good citizenship?

Is it not a great human tragedy that there should be in our midst many hundreds of young boys and girls who are forced by reason of economics to be illegal hawkers and are semi-permanent visitors at the Juvenile Courts?

I suggest that the Urban Services Department and the Social Welfare Department give this problem their concentrated attention, and at the meeting when the Officials will reply that detailed answers be given by the heads of the departments concerned as to what will be done.

The problem of illegal hawking, particularly among young boys and girls, is not easy to solve but this is all the more reason for Government to do everything in its power to assist these youngsters from turning into half-illiterate or completely illiterate adult hawkers for the rest of their lives. Surely these youngsters deserve a better chance in life than that.

Specifically I would urge:

(1) That Government establish vocational training centres in all large resettlement estates;

(2) That Government take steps to expand the apprenticeship schemes in medium-sized factories even though it may require a subsidy on the part of Government.

(3) That youth employment centres be established in all large resettlement estates.

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