ENG-1955 — Page 124

EDUCATION.

Expenditure by other Departments:

Department of Medical and Health Services

298,178

Kowloon-Canton Railway

56,711

Department of Agriculture. Fisheries and

Forestry

77,886

432,775

87

POLICY AND DEVELOPMENT

The paramount object of the Government's educational policy is still the expansion of primary school education. As a result of Government measures, such as a five-year plan for building new government schools, and of efforts by private bodies, the infant and primary school enrolment rose from about 81,000 in 1947 to almost 188,000 in 1955. It is estimated however that by 1961 the number of children of primary school age (6-12 years) will have risen to 366,000.

In 1955, to meet the challenge of this situation, the Government accepted in principle a seven-year plan to create 26,000 additional school places a year, and has approved the expenditure necessary for carrying out the first stage. This expenditure comprises the cost of extending teacher-training facilities, the building of additional government schools, increased aid to permit the building of more subsidized schools and to enable more of them to adopt the two-sessional system, and the grant of interest-free loans to non-profit- making private schools for the extension of

of existing premises and the construction of new buildings. By these means, and by increasing, within safe limits, the sizes of existing classes, it is anticipated that the target of the first two years of the seven-year plan is likely to be reached.

The chief difficulty in continuing the same rate of expan- sion will be the scarcity of sites. Future planning envisages in most cases 24-classroom schools, housed in multi-storeyed buildings, on restricted sites with playground space provided on the ground floor or on the roof.

The growing number of children in primary schools will increase the demand for secondary education. One new Anglo-Chinese co-educational secondary school, maintained by the Government and named the Queen Elizabeth School, has already been opened, and three grant-aided Anglo- Chinese secondary schools are planned.