ENG-1967 — Page 124

6

Education

DEPARTMENTAL policy has been concerned with implementing recommendations made in the government white paper on educa- tion (June 30, 1965). There has been a further increase in the number of aided primary school places and it seems likely that the target of providing a subsidized primary school place for every child of the right age who seeks one can be reached by 1971. The rate of fee remission for primary school places was doubled this year from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, ensuring that no child from a poor home should be deprived of a place in a public school solely through the inability of his parents to pay the fees. It is declared policy that if at any time it should appear that existing funds were inadequate to meet the demand for remission of fees in public primary schools in all cases of genuine hardship the government would authorize further expenditure, even if it meant that the rate of remission were raised to 30 per cent or higher.

Other sectors of education also recorded progress, due principally to the encouragement given to private agencies to provide aided secondary education, and to the added emphasis given to the expansion of technical and vocational training. In August the Kowloon sub-office and the adult education section moved into new premises in the Kowloon Central Post Office building. In September the departmental headquarters section moved from Battery Path to new accommodation at Lee Gardens, where it was joined by those sections formerly accommodated in Fung House.

Under the provisions of the Education Ordinance the Director of Education is charged with the superintendence of matters relating to education in the Colony. He directly controls all govern- ment schools and almost all others are required to be registered under the Education Ordinance, which provides the Director with the necessary powers to ensure the satisfactory nature of school