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system is, in the opinion of the Commissioners, both wasteful and unpractical. Accord- ing to the evidence of the Director of Education there is no "natural supply" of Univer- sity graduate teachers for Government schools; consequently Government has found it necessary to provide scholarships in order to induce students to take the University course in Education. Each of these "Students in Training" costs Government $1,355 a year in respect of fees and allowances. But 'wastage' is high, and the actual cost at the end of the four years' course works out at about $10,000 per head. This is clearly an inordinately expensive scheme. At the conclusion of the course the graduate is bound by the terms of his agreement to serve in a Government school for two years. But in actual fact the Government has little or no control over the graduate if he refuses to carry out his part of the contract, nor has it any means of enforcing the refund of the subsidy should the student fail either to qualify, or to fulfil the prescribed term of years, at the University. There are at the present moment twenty-two of these subsidized students in training at the University. The expense incurred by the Government since the adoption of this scheme is out of all proportion to the number of Chinese graduate teachers now in the Department. Further, the methods of training do not appear to supply the actual practice in teaching which should be the important feature of educational course.
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30. The Commissioners recommend that the following arrangements be substituted for those now in operation.
(a) The closing down of the Technical Institute classes.
(b) The abolition of the subsidy to students in training at the University.
(e) For the training of all teacher for Government schools a Training College should be established with a full time qualified staff, and a two years' full time course of training.
The College could be lodged, until such time as a separate building can be provided, in one part of King's College. It should be under a whole time Head, who should not be in addition a Headmaster of a school. If necessary he should, on appointment and before the College is opened, be allowed a period of leave to study up-to-date methods of train- ing in England. The staff, which should be English and Chinese, could be recruited from among the highly qualified men and women at present in the Department. There should be no separate course of training at the University, but the University graduates should take a post graduate one year's course at the Government Training College to qualify as teachers In the case of the University graduates the Government might pay a part or the whole of their tuition fees for this one year's course, and might grant them an allowance to cover their other expenses, such sum to be decided upon by the Director of Education in collaboration with the Vice-Chancellor of the University. For both the two years' training course and the one year's post-graduate course, certificates should be issued on the result of an examination in the practice and theory of teaching.
31. The Commissioners wish to emphasize the point that while the head of the Training College should be an officer of the Government, the closest relations should be maintained between the College and the University. It should be possible for the officer to arrange with the University for the students to attend lectures thereat. On the other hand, all the students should have the maximum of experience in actual teaching. The head of the Training College should have every facility from the Education Department for distributing his students through the schools of the Colony, in order to practice teaching, not only under the eye of the College staff, but of the teaching staff in the schools. These methods are adopted by training institutions in England, and the introduction of the same methods to this Colony would enable the Government to draw upon a supply of far better equipped teachers in the future, than has hitherto been the case. The Commissioners are of the opinion that while the heads and senior masters of the Government schools should for some time to come be recruited from England, the Hong Kong University graduate teachers should be encouraged to remain in Government service, with a view to taking up in the future some of the higher posts in the Education Department.
32. If it be possible in the future, a preferential scale of salary should be given to the graduate Anglo-Chinese teachers, to distinguish them in status from the non-graduate Anglo-Chinese and Vernacular teachers. The Commissioners would suggest that in future, when appointments are made to the posts of non-graduate Anglo-Chinese and Vernacular