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Free school for 12 years: DAB
The Standard Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Winnie Chong
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The pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong has called on Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to extend the length of time a child receives free education from nine years to 12, when he makes his policy address later this month.
Speaking on a Commercial Radio program yesterday, party chairman Tam Yiu-ching said nine years was far too short to meet the needs of the community today.
He said that with secondary schooling being changed from the current seven years to six, it would be appropriate to give children 12 years of free school.
"The extension will give each and every child an opportunity to complete his or her basic education," Tam said.
The current nine-year compulsory education system comprises three years of secondary school on top of six years of primary.
Tam said the kindergarten voucher scheme introduced this year provides all children with the opportunity of pre-school education and should be maintained. The HK$2 billion voucher scheme covers most expenses for children in non-profit-making kindergartens.
Following protests from parent bodies and private schools, the scheme was extended to cover profit-making kindergartens as well, but only for three years.
Even if the government agrees to extend free education to 12 years, Hong Kong will still be behind Macau, which gives its residents 15 years of free education.
Meanwhile, Tam said other matters his party would like to see addressed in Tsang's policy speech include using some of the surplus to provide relief to taxpayers, increased expenditure on social welfare, minimum wage legislation and an extension of the travel allowance scheme to improve the livelihood of the low-income groups. |
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發表於 07-10-2 11:35
