HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1954
Steps taken to provide more primary school accom- modation include an increase in the size of classrooms and classes, and encouragement to industrial and commercial firms to assist in financing new schools. Government also encourages missionary and philan- thropic bodies to build primary schools by offering sites, interest free loans and subsidies for building and running costs. Well established bodies may also be provided with sites and interest free loans for the build- ing of private primary schools.
Education in the Colony is voluntary and under the general control of the Director of Education, acting under the Education Ordinance, 1952, which gives statutory powers to the Board of Education in certain educational matters. The Director is required to keep a register of schools, and of 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.
Government itself directly maintains 22 primary schools, II secondary schools, two technical schools, a technical college, and three teacher training colleges. The average age of entry and leaving Government primary schools is a little over six and thirteen respec- tively and for secondary schools just over thirteen and nineteen years of age.
Under the terms of the Grant Code, Government aids selected schools by paying the difference between the approved expenditure of a school and its income from fees and other sources. This approved expendi- ture includes salaries, incidentals, and passages and
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