He, however, hoped the government would stop shutting down schools having not
enough students and promote small class teaching and offer greater financial
assistance to sub-degree candidates.
Ma Lik, chairman of Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong
Kong, queried whether the "education voucher" system is correctly named.
Commenting on the ways to transform Hong Kong into an education hub, he
proposed increasing the quota of overseas students in local universities,
coupled with simplified procedures and relaxation of rules that allow them to
take part-time jobs during spare time and after graduation.
The Civic Party's Audrey Eu suggested that kindergartens, whether they are
profit making or not, should receive the same kind of subsidy as long as they
pass the assessment by the government.
Secretary for Education & Manpower Arthur Li, however, said that there
was not just one kind of education voucher system in the world. "Pre-school
education is not part of compulsory education that every child enjoys," he said.
"I know that when it comes to education vouchers, people will think of Milton
Friedman as though his proposal is the only norm while changes are but heresies
and why should we follow blindly a person's thinking several decades ago?
Instead, we should design a education voucher system commensurate with the
actual situation in Hong Kong."
Besides, the teaching methods, teaching quality, fees charged by
kindergartens vary greatly and the fees are not proportional to quality. "So the
best way to input additional resource to pre-school education is to use the
voucher system to facilitate variety and flexibility for the kindergartens, he
said.
On environment issues, the Liberal Party's Andrew Leung suggested the
government grant land for oil companies to build duty-free petrol stations at
the boundary to prevent truck drivers from refilling unclean fuel from the
mainland.
In the view of independent legislator Albert Cheng, the government should
take a leading role in low-density property developments. If the buildings are
too high and the distance from building to building is too short, it will
generate a "screen effect" that worsens the air quality, he said.
The housing and environment ministers will respond today, followed by the
debate on health, welfare and food policies.
The entire debate will then come to an end today, while the Motion of Thanks
and the amendments will be put to vote.
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