ENG-1991 — Page 163

EDUCATION

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development of self-access language packages. Work proceeded during the year on preparations for implementing these recommendations.

Standardised Hong Kong Attainment Tests in the three basic subjects of Chinese, English and Mathematics are distributed to all primary schools and given at the end of the school year to pupils at all levels. The tests help schools to assess pupil performance and diagnose areas of strength and weakness in these subjects, so that appropriate guidance, counselling and remedial teaching can be provided. Test results also help the department monitor standards in these subjects across years and levels.

The class library scheme provides supplementary reading materials for pupils to support classroom learning, promote a more exploratory approach to learning, develop the habit of leisure reading, and pave the way for effective use of the library in secondary school. A Reading Award Scheme is organised annually for Primary 5 and 6 students, and a booklet containing the winning book reports is issued to all schools. In 1991, 38 000 students from 203 primary schools joined the scheme.

At the end of the primary course, pupils are allocated to government or aided secondary schools, or to private schools with bought places. The Secondary School Places Allocation System is based on internal school assessments, scaled by a centrally administered academic aptitude test, and on parental choice. For allocation purposes the territory is divided into 19 school nets. This year, 84 251 pupils took part in the allocation, of whom 73 482 (87.2 per cent) found places in government and aided grammar schools, 5 889 (7 per cent) in prevocational schools, and 4 880 (5.8 per cent) in private schools in the Bought Place Scheme.

Secondary Schools

In 1978, universal free education was extended to junior secondary classes. The policy for senior secondary education, leading to the HKCEE, is to provide by 1992 subsidised Secondary 4 places for about 85 per cent of the 15-year-old population. Places for a further 10 per cent will be provided on full-time craft courses of vocational training. The target for sixth form education is to provide one public sector Secondary 6 place for every three public sector Secondary 4 places two years earlier.

In 1991, there were 42 government, 324 aided and 76 private secondary schools. To meet the policy targets new secondary schools are built and places are bought from private schools. During the year, 12 new schools opened, providing 13 920 places. Another 41 schools will be completed between 1992 and 1996 to meet demand and to reprovision schools from areas where there are surplus places to areas with a shortfall. In 1990, for the first time, places at senior secondary level were bought from private schools in the Bought Place Scheme (BPS), which will be extended to the sixth form in 1992.

In March, the government unveiled the School Management Initiative, a scheme to give public sector schools more decision making power in return for more formal procedures for planning, implementing and evaluating their activities. In September, 21 aided secondary schools joined the first phase of the scheme and began to modify their management procedures in preparation for changing to a new funding system in September 1992. An advisory committee was appointed to advise the director on implementation of the scheme. The members have a wide range of education and management expertise, and provide a channel for developing and disseminating ideas.