ENG-1985 — Page 123

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XXD

Education

THE Education Commission, set up in April 1984 to co-ordinate and give consolidated advice on educational policy in Hong Kong, released its first report in January. The recommendations set out in the report which were subsequently accepted by the govern- ment included.

(i) the phasing-out of the Junior Secondary Education Assessment (JSEA) in 1991 through a progressive expansion of subsidised full-time post-Form 3 educational opportunities;

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(ii) the improvement of the standards of English and Chinese in schools; (iii) the promotion of Chinese as the medium of instruction in schools; (iv) the qualitative improvement and quantitative expansion of the teaching service; (v) the need to examine the development of open education at different levels; and (vi) the continuation of the existing educational research efforts and the co-ordination of educational research activities for the purpose of planning and formulation of educational policies. During the year, the approved policies for all levels of education as set out in the White Papers of 1978 and 1981 continued to be implemented. Some $910.8 million in capital expenditure and $6,895.8 million in recurrent expenditure was provided for education in the government's Estimates for 1985-6, representing 17 per cent of the Budget.

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The School Building Programme continued to make progress. During the year, 10 secondary schools, including two prevocational schools, and 11 primary schools were completed, providing 11 280 secondary school places and 21 120 primary school places, the latter on a bisessional basis. Thirty-five additional secondary schools, as recommended by the Education Commission in its first report, were also included in the programme and are scheduled for completion between 1987 and 1993.

In May, the government announced that the provision of two additional non-graduate teachers for each standard-size government and aided secondary school would be advanced by one year, one to be provided in September and the other in September 1986. The additional staff will enable schools to improve services in remedial teaching, pupil counselling and guidance, and extra-curricular activities which complement and reinforce the formal curriculum.

The year also saw the further extension of computer education. Computer Studies, first introduced in public-sector secondary schools as a pilot scheme in September 1982, had grown to cover 210 secondary schools by September 1985. From September 1986 all public-sector secondary schools will be able to offer the subject of Computer Studies if they so wish. A Computer Education Centre will also be established in 1986 under a grant of $4 million from the MacLehose Fund. The centre will serve both as a training centre and as a resource centre for teachers.