ENG-1981 — Page 110

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EDUCATION

supervised by officers of the Education Department, whose professional advice is freely available to school managers, teachers, parents and members of the public. Government assistance includes grants of Crown Land to reliable bodies, reimbursing non-profit- making groups with payments of rates, allocating premises in public housing estates to suitable sponsoring bodies, and providing in-service teacher training through seminars, exhibitions, and a two-year part-time training course.

Primary Education

Primary education has been free in all government schools and in most aided schools since September, 1971. In the few aided primary schools where fees are charged, fees may be remitted for up to 20 per cent of the total enrolment to meet cases of genuine hardship. To help needy parents further, an annual textbook and stationery grant of $30 per pupil is available to 20 per cent of pupils enrolled in government and aided primary schools. A minority of parents continue to send their children to private primary schools, although places are available for them in the public sector.

An important milestone in this field of education was the publication, in July, of the White Paper on Primary Education and Pre-primary Services, which is primarily concerned with improving the quality of educational services for children in the age range four-to-six years (the kindergarten group) and six-to-12 years (the primary group), with effect from September 1982.

In September 1981, the primary school enrolment totalled 537 123 compared with 540 260 the previous year. In addition, 11 636 pupils attended night schools. During the past year, 11 970 primary places were provided in new and developing schools and more are being planned to meet the needs of developing areas, particularly in the new towns of the New Territories.

Primary school leavers who want subsidised junior secondary school places participate in a system of allocation known as the Secondary School Places Allocation (SSPA). The system is based on internal school assessments scaled by a centrally-administered Academic Aptitude Test, parental choice of secondary schools, and the division of the territory into 24 school 'nets' or districts.

In July, all of the 85 367 Primary 6 leavers participating in the SSPA were allocated Form 1 or Middle 1 places in schools in the public sector, which comprises places in government and aided schools, private non-profit-making schools in receipt of per caput grants, and private independent schools in the 'bought places' scheme.

Chinese is the language of instruction in most primary schools, with English taught as a second language. However, 11 junior schools - eight operated by the government- subvented English Schools Foundation and three by private bodies cater for children whose first language is English.

The Student Guidance Scheme launched in September, 1978, has continued to expand and was providing a social work service in 665 primary schools (which is about 65 per cent of the total) at year's end. Two groups of newly-recruited student guidance officers completed a basic three-month training course and commenced work in primary schools during the year. The service will eventually be extended to all primary schools by March 1982.

Secondary Education

In terms of curriculum and medium of instruction, Hong Kong's secondary schools can be classified into four main types: Anglo-Chinese secondary schools, Chinese middle schools,