6
Education
THE Director of Education is charged, under the Education Ordin- ance, with the superintendence of matters relating to education in the Colony. He directly controls all government schools, while all other schools with very few exceptions are required to be registered under the Ordinance, which provides the Director with the necessary powers to ensure that acceptable standards are maintained. The Director is chairman of the Board of Education which advises the Governor on educational matters.
Expansion remains the main feature of education and the number of students in all areas of education continues to increase. Detailed figures are given in Appendix 26, but some idea of this expansion can be gained from the fact that enrolment at the end of September in primary schools was 765,397 and in secondary schools it was 279,318 compared with 752,171 and 264,056 respectively in 1969. Altogether 1,240,540 pupils were enrolled in 2,804 schools, colleges and education centres, 44,239 more than last year's figure.
Of significance during the year was the announcement by Govern- ment of its intention to make available at least three years of assisted post-primary education to all children in the appropriate age group (12-14) seeking it; the intention to introduce free primary education; and the completion of the new Technical Institute buildings at Mor- rison Hill, which enabled the institute to commence training at the craft and technician level in the new premises in September.
PRE-PRIMARY EDUCATION
Private kindergartens, which are not maintained or run by Government but are registered with the Education Department and supervised by the Inspectorate, rose in number from 778 in the previous year to 863 in September 1970 and enrolment increased from 112,774 to 123,218. Government gives assistance in the form