ENG-1968 — Page 33

PROGRESS

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It follows that with such a youthful population there is a great demand for education in Hong Kong. In 1968 approximately one third of the total population of the Colony was in attendance at teaching institutions, be it kindergarten, school, technical college or university. Sheer numbers and their rate of increase, plus a traditional very high regard for the importance of education, produce a constant need for more classrooms. The high rate of provision was maintained in 1968, especially in the primary sector where most new schools were built in conjunction with new building estates. It is the Government's aim to provide places by 1971, in govern- ment or government-aided schools, for all who are likely to seek them. This is believed to be 80 per cent of children between the ages of six and 12: in 1968 the figure of 69 per cent had been reached.

To assist parents who have difficulty in meeting the costs of putting a child through school, the Government reduced primary school fees generally from $50 per year to $40 per year or from $40 to $30. It was also decided to give a textbook and stationery grant to the approximately 60,000 primary school children who already held free school places. By and large 50 per cent of students in secondary schools enjoyed some degree of fee remission. During the year 36 government and government-subvented schools with 820 class- rooms were completed at a capital cost of $34.3 million.

With Hong Kong's industries expanding there is a strong require- ment for technical training and more attention was paid to the introduction of new institutions for technical education. On the broader front it was decided to go ahead with the planning of educational television. Funds were voted in principle for staff and studios and it should be possible to bring the benefits of the best teaching skills in certain select subjects to serve as a tool for the teachers actually in the classrooms through this medium by 1970.

In the field of medicine and health steady planned progress was made. The Queen Mary Hospital on Hong Kong Island continued its expansion which will eventually almost double the number of beds available. Planning also went ahead for a new general hospital in Kowloon. While tuberculosis remained the main single cause of death from disease, it became clear that as a result of giving babies BCG vaccination early in life, the incidence of the disease was at last being arrested. For two months in the middle of the year the Colony