EDUCATION
115
September 1958 and 30th September 1959 the following new accommodation was completed:
No. of
No. of Schools Classrooms
Accom-
modation
Government Schools
11
244
21,460
Subsidized Schools
43
223
15,660
Private Schools
13
120
8,509
Total
67
587
45,629
Government schools are built, equipped and operated entirely from Government funds. Subsidized schools are assisted by the free grant of land, by building subsidies, and by subsidies for recurrent costs: they often receive interest-free loans for new buildings as well. Selected private schools, operated on a non- profit-making basis, may receive a free grant of land and interest- free building loans. The schools mentioned in the table above were all in new buildings.
Two features of the school building programme during the year deserve comment. Firstly, the large number of government schools completed, accommodating more than twice as many pupils as in government schools completed in any previous year. Secondly, the inception of ground floor government-aided primary schools in Resettlement Estates, built as part of the resettlement housing blocks. It is hoped that most of the children in new resettlement estates will be accommodated in this new type of school, which will materially ease the general problem of finding primary school places for all the children in the Colony.
The Government directly maintains sixty six primary schools, eight secondary schools, two technical secondary schools, a tech- nical college, two teacher training colleges and three evening institutions. During the year eleven new schools were opened and extensions were built to three existing schools. The average age for entering and leaving government primary schools is six and twelve respectively, and for secondary schools over twelve and nineteen.
Grant Schools (which are concerned mainly with secondary education) function under the terms of the Grant Code, under which the Government pays the difference between the approved expenditure of a school and its income from fees and other