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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim, at a media session after attending radio programmes today (October 12):
Reporter: Will the measures you introduced yesterday remain in place next year? Or will there be another piecemeal approach?
Secretary for Education: These particular six major measures are considered as a contingency arrangement for the particular situation we faced last few weeks. A lot of discussions said that whether we have been making a lot of preparation, so that it is not too reactive rather than proactive. I would like to make a point here right now. Indeed, last year, we had some queuing up type of situation and challenges faced by some of the kindergartens. What happened is that we have taken that lesson. So many of the kindergartens, KGs in brief, actually have already made particular improvements in measures like online registration and distribution of forms. They have also set very specific schedules, early notification of the target groups. They have done it. However, for a number of particular KGs, they have queueing problems that we were faced with and being reported by the media. That's why we take special measures for this particular situation. Having said that, we believe this is particular for this year, because we are just hit by the peak of the birth rate of the Type II babies. If you look at it, in 2011, there are actually 35 000-36 000 Type II babies. This is a year being hit for the 2014/15 enrolment. For next year, it is going to drop down to 26 000 from 35 000-36 000, around 9 000 drop. The number of Year of Dragon babies will pop up as well. But in general, the total number of this matching age group for K1 will be dropping. We can anticipate that. Having said that, that's why, these are particular measures for this year. But some of the improvements in enrolment, I believe that we can learn from them, probably some of those good practices may be maintained.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, October 12, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:27
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