Education
Chapter 7
SOCIAL SERVICES
The administration of the Education department has been considerably eased through the acquisition by Government of centrally situated premises. All sections of the department are now under one roof.
The problem of post-war educational policy has been to provide adequate facilities, not only for children of Hong Kong parentage, but also for the children of the refugees who came to the Colony as a result of unsettled conditions in China. Against the background of a very high birth rate, the acute problem of the resettlement of refugees and a trade depression, development has taken place in two directions; in the extension of primary education and in the endeavour to relate education to the environment of the children concerned.
As the large majority receive only primary education, it has been planned to make this as far as possible complete in itself, and to emphasize quality and to enlarge the scope of education. Thus children completing their education at the primary stage are able to adjust themselves more to the demands of the environment in which they will work and spend the rest of their lives.
Education in the Colony is voluntary and under the general control of the Director of Education, acting under the Educa- tion Ordinance of 1952, which gives statutory powers to the Board of Education to advise on educational matters. The Director is required to keep a register of schools, teachers and managers of schools and to ensure that satisfactory standards are maintained in respect of structural requirements, methods of enforcing discipline, the keeping of registers and accounts, the payment of fees and the proper conduct and efficiency of schools and teachers.
82