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hope of raising the income of the teachers and improving their conditions of teaching. Annual reports given by the inspectors show a constant cancellation and replacement of the schools on the subsidy list. Numbers of schools receiving subsidy varied from forty to a hundred before World War II. More direct supervision was exercised from 1921 onwards when the 1913 Education Ordinance, which required all schools with nine pupils or more to register with the government, was applied to the New Territories. In 1926, a government Vernacular Normal School was set up in Taipo in the hope of "producing capable vernacular teachers for the country districts."20
Political events and cultural movements in China during the first few decades of the 20th century brought about important changes in traditional Chinese educational concepts. Modern schools were set up alongside the traditional ssu-shu, and the classical primers were revised or replaced by new sets of textbooks, the first stage in a major change in the contents and aim of education. This process of modernization, coupled with the changes induced by the economic and social pressures mentioned above, led to changes in the education provided and the level and types of popular literacy achieved in this village community at Sheung Shui which can be documented in some detail.
The first departure from traditional educational practices in Sheung Shui was the beginning of female education. For a long time, education was confined to boys only. Amongst the five old ladies above the age of 76 whom we interviewed, all admitted that they were unable to read and write, and they had no knowledge of any woman of their age who had been to school. According to the male informants, they did not see any girls attending class in the village until the first girls' school was opened in 1912, and neither had they any knowledge of girls being tutored at home. The first two ladies resident in the village who were known to be literate came to the village from outside and had received their education in Hong Kong. They were sisters, one of whom had married an early Christian convert from the village who became, in time, a pioneer in the promotion of modern education in the district. Our informants admitted, "In spite of our efforts in building study halls and securing success in the civil