Increasing School Places

41. Hong Kong lags behind developed countries in terms of average educational level. At present, only 18% of the population aged 15 and above has at least post-secondary education, while 48% have an education level of Secondary Three or below. To catch the train of the New Economy, we must hurry to increase the number of places above junior secondary level. In last year's Policy Address, I outlined our objective to double the number of senior secondary school leavers receiving tertiary education from 30% to 60% within ten years. In other words, we need to increase the number of tertiary education places by about 30 000 within the next decade. This has been met with an encouraging response from local tertiary institutions, which have provided a total of 6 500 self-financing places this academic year, including higher diploma and sub-degree courses. This is a good start.

42. I also pledged last year that from 2002 onwards, all willing and capable Secondary Three students who want to continue studying will be provided with subsidised Secondary Four and Five places. If we change the structure of senior secondary schools to a three-year one, in the long run all students will be able to receive six years of secondary education. In recent years, we have also launched the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme and Project Springboard to alleviate the problem of a shortfall in school places and to provide young people with an alternative path to seek employment or pursue further studies.