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Queen's College (then in Hollywood Road), the Government secondary school which is still situated on Hong Kong Island. In 1913, the Technical Institute entered [6] candidates for local examinations of whom 116 passed. Subjects included shorthand, sanitation, building construction and field surveying.
The development of technical education was slow. However, in 1926 the Salesian Fathers commenced classes in shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring, and printing; at about the same time, Taikoo Dockyard, situated at Quarry Bay, opened evening classes for their apprentices.
In 1903, a positive step was taken by the Government towards the development of technical education when a committee was formed to report on the possibility of introducing a system of practical education. This Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir William Hornell, made three main recommendations. These were the establishment of a junior technical school; the provision of evening classes for apprentices; and the commencement of full-time courses at a later date.
As a result, in 1932 the Junior Technical School was established, which was Government's first venture into full-time technical education. This secondary school provided a comparatively narrow four-year course designed mainly as pre-apprentice training for the engineering trades. In 1957, 'JTS', as it was usually known, moved from its accommodation in Queen's Road East (from 1974 to the time of writing this has been occupied by the Technical Teachers College) to the three-storey building in Wood Road vacated by the then Technical College. At the same time, the name (JTS) was changed to Victoria Technical School (VTS), and a phased conversion from a trade to a secondary school, albeit with some emphasis on non-vocational technical subjects, took place.
Further progress was made in 1935 when the Catholic Salesian Society founded the Aberdeen Trade School. This provided a general education, together with training considered comparable to an apprenticeship within an institution. The School was converted into a secondary technical school in the late 1950s. The author first visited this establishment in January 1955 and recalls the high standard of projects on display.