REVIEW OF THE YEAR
been accepted that the former policy of segregating lepers from the community was creating a growing rehabilitation problem. Now it has been decided that treatment will be given to lepers in out-patient clinics unless they are badly disfigured.
The statistics of births and deaths for 1954 and previous years show without question that Hong Kong, in common with most other Far Eastern countries, has a population problem. In Hong Kong the health of a traditionally prolific population is protected by a technically proficient medical organization with the result that many children are born but few people die. If the present rate of increase continues it is likely that the population of Hong Kong will exceed 32 millions by 1964. This figure gives no cause for alarm, but it has given rise to some concern in the Education Depart- ment which is faced with the problem of providing means of education for the children of this multitude. Although in the year ending on 30th June, 1954, fifty new school buildings or extensions were opened to provide for some 14,560 pupils, more schools and more teachers are badly needed. The shortage of graduate teachers will be relieved to some extent by the mainten- ance grants and bursaries scheme which came into operation in 1954. The declared object of this double scheme is to enable needy students of merit to take a degree at Hong Kong University and a Teacher's Diploma. When the scheme is in full operation about 35 graduate teachers will be entering the profession each year. Nor has higher education been forgotten, for in 1954 Government, acting upon the recommenda- tions made by Sir Ivor Jennings, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ceylon and Dr. D. W. Logan,
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