UNITED STATES
Anti-Rad fever."
MUTUAL INFLAMMATION
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1947.
SOVIET RUSSIA Anti-Capitalist-Demor
Lever
(Copyright in Alt Countriae),
“Candidus” discusses the
Prolonged Crisis In Housing
"G
|OVERNMENT is deeply conscious of its obligations to the citizens of this Colony In the present frolonged housing crisis," stated a Government spokesman on Thursday last. The community will be in complete agreement, for it, too, is deeply conscious of Government's obliga- tlons.
The added stalement, "The fact that no satia- factory solution had yet been found was not due to lack of effort," will not, however, be accepted completely.
A
YEAR or so ago, I was informed on good au- thority that the Army had brought to Hong- kong a considerable number of huts of the "Nissen". type, but that, in spite of recommendations, these had not been used for other military or civilian purposes.
At that time, the military authorities had full power to requisition property for billeting purposes, and quite properly exercised that authority. Many buildings are still in possession of the Services, although by this time there is no just reason why civilians should be homeless in order to accommo- date soldiers, sailors and airmen.
Although not the ideal form of permanent housing, a Nissen hut could easily be adapted for civilian use. Many families cooped up in hotels. and bbarding houses would welcome the opportunity of securing the use of a hut, which could be sub- divided into a number of rooms. There are a number of suitable sites where such camps could have been made up quite attractive-and far more healthy than living herded to- gether as so many people have |to today. Moreover, the cost of living would be brought down to a reasonable and economic level.
What is the value of
the Public Schools?
F all the queer and illogical elementa in British national life the institutions called
by
"Public Schools" must seem to J.F. WOLFENDEN, C.B.E., M.A.
be very nearly the most queer and the most illogical. Not only do they present a separate stream of education outside the national system, but for these two words "Public School" there
and governing bodies of the Public
Schools are represented on it, to-ONE would have expected
gether with other bodies of teachers
Government to call for
and administrators. The Committee designs for austerity type has detailed statistics, recently col-
demand.
of
lected, of the number of places offer buildings of the modest bun- Headmaster of Shrewsbury School; Chairman of the Head- ed by the Public Schools and op-galow design, built mainly of masters' Conference in 1945 and 1946; Member of the plled for by the local education nu-cement blocks. Cement is not thorities. Its next duty will be to expensive. We have plenty of Ministry of Education Committes on Boarding Education.
match up the supply against the sand and red earth-and there
is no doubt that an effort in such ị is no accepted definition. The wealthy, is the best that Britain to do so would inevitably Involve title is claimed, for good reasons can provide. Certainly it has troland if there is one thing above number of places the Public Schools considerable practicable value.
them in some degree of public con-
But everybody recognises that the direction would have proved of or bad, by any school which likes been frequently said that the all others that these schools value can offer are a mero scratching to think that it has something boarding school is the one great it is their Independence. in common with........ Eton, contribution of Britain to The financial dificulty is by no the best will in the world they can-
Has Government done any- Winchester or Rugby.
educational practice. If that is means the only one. The The nearest there is to a de- so, how can it be justifiable to of places the Pubile Schools can offer not provide for more than one per- thing in the way of controlling cent of any year's age-group from the price of building materials? lo boys from the national system is finition is that schools whose limit it to those who happen to ously very small; indeed, at the the national system.
Surely it would have been rea- headmasters are members of have been born into compara present time they are so full
and
Quantitatively their contribution aonable to pool all building the Headquarters Conference tively wealthy families, what have such long waiting lists that any is negugibic, though qualitatively it can properly be called Public over their other merits
We or boys they take in this way will
Their materials and resources. Schools. But that body includ- abilities?
simply be excluding an equal number is of the first importance.
offer can be little more than a
Bec residences being recons of their
worth making. The real solution
ed big day schools, small board-
number
the surface of the problern. With
If the the "regular customers."
which all Headmasters' Confered, with even greater insistence, these vacancies offered by the lube able to give a boarding education to
is in fact no single feature
ence schools have in common.
Not Subsidised
and
It is
Englishman, what he means is has been for long a movement in life is so great that it ought to When Open To Alling that the higher grades of
蟲
good secondary school that they can- HITHERTO the conditions of the for complaint.
not really get the education they do-
experiment have never been
It is very important ta realise that number of places available small ture, but it is a gesture enormously structed on the most luxurious ing schools, and some which
as these questions have not been asked and the demand for them is great, can only come with a vast increase lines, there being no apparent do receive public moneys,
In the number of boarding schools. shortage of materials as long well as the independent board only by those who are opposed to the how is the decision to be made be
educa- Public School system on political or tween the various candidates from the the State or the local ing schools of tradition. There economic grounds. They have been national system? In short, what are tion authorities build scores of new as price is no object..
to be the criteria of selection for boarding schools we shall never be
I share the opinion with the from inside the Public Schools them
Schools? selves. For those
who work
all the children who need it or whose majority of the homeless that in them believe in them are even more
argued that the determining abilities and aptitudes justify their und anxious than are those who bombard factor should be the need of any receiving it Nor shall we be able. Government has not done every- is the thing possible in the matter of them from outside to ensure that child for a boarding education. If these schools should be open to these his parents are abroad, or divorced, until then, to decide what
of a boarding school as an housing rehabilitation, and one the who deserve the particular kind of or incapable of providing him with a value
then educational instrument.
must be pardoned for mention- BUT in real life, when
educational opportunity they afford, suitable home background, words are used by an no recent or sudden cry: there clearly his need for boarding school
civil servants have little cause amet. Again, there are children ily- the schools which are indepen- side the schools themselves for dent of public control, whose more rational form of recruitment to Ing in remote parts, so far from boys are boarders, and whose them.
It was at the express request. of finances are not subsidised by
serve; for them there clearly ought pure; for boarding school education
certain contributions either from the the Headmasters' Conference itself, lo be places in the boarding schuuis, has always been mixed up with a
background
family. In conjunction with the Association. State or from the local educa of Governing Bodies, that Mr R. A.
wealth or position. When boarding tion authorities. And it is in this Butler, then President of the Board
the experiment working in genuine popular, if slightly inaccurate, of Education, in 1942 appointed the
And then It will rather different conditions. Committee, to report Fleming
THERS take a sense that we shall use the
longer be true that the only two standpoint. They argue that the ways in which the Public Schools words.
education boarding edu getting could be more closely associated with fundamental principle of the Educa- ways of Inevitably these schools aro the national system of education. tian Act of 1944 is that every child are for a child either to get itself expensive. They have
com- Many headmasters had been, for must receive the education best gut- born into a well-to-do family or to paratively big staffs, usually years before the Fleming Committee rd to bis abilities and aptitudes. So commit such an act of delinquency
was set up, trying in their
they claim that this particular form as will persuade a Juvenile Court to paid more than my have one schools to work out some practicable of education should be given to the send it to an Approved School. State schools; they con scheme; and several have
in
whose particular personal
One thing is certain. The Public siderable costs to meet in the operation private arrangements with qualities entitle him to it, whatever Schools are pledged (by a resolution.
shortcomings of his maintenance of buildings and particular local education authorities, the merits or
passed without dissent at a meeting of the Headmasters' Conference) to playing fields, and they have no Now the attempt is being made to parents.
establish a genuinely nation-wide
All these questions, and many of do everything in their power subsidies from public funds. polley.
a similar kind, are being achive- asalst the Ministry's Committee on They depend entirely, excopt
ly examined by a Committee at the Boarding Education in making for their income from
on
own
Special Committee schools are open to all we shall sea
A
по
ta
to
Д
endow Financial Difficulty Ministry of Education specially tet boarding school education available
ments (which is usually small),
TC-
up to consider und report on Hoard for all the young people of Britain
The headmastera who need it or deserve it.
on the fees paid by parents. THERE ore obvious dificulties, ing Education. Those fees must therefore be The Brat is crudely financial. The hig. Consequently in the past schools depend for their income on their field of recruitment has fecs. If the amenities which they been restricted to those who at present offer are not to be
duced, if they are still to attract the could afford fees of the order of best type of masters and pay them $175 up to £300 a year. That properly, they must somehow or is, their boys have inevitably other keep up their present annual come from
income Income. They therefore simply can- high 1 range.
Obvious Objections FOR a long time that has been admitted to be un-
not afford to take boys from tho national system without payment. It there is to be payment, it must
come, if it cannot come from from the Exchequer or fcom
the
parents, from public funds, alther Iocal education authorities,
At once two difficulties arise. Some
satisfactory There are ob- local edutation authorities might vious objections, on all grounds well say that they do not feel justl. of fi democrátic in fairness to fed spending £200 a year of public restricting any form of educa- money to send one particular boy to
boarding school outsid
"outside their area' tion to one particular section of a the community, especially when we perfectly adequate day schools, already have inside that that one form of education is
And some
local education authorities
thought by many to be the best disapprova of what the Public form of education which can be Schools represent and would not be got. For it is widely held, rightly willing to use publie money to supë or wrongly, that this board port what they regard as part of a system, which ought to be abolished: Ing school education, provided a by these fewschools for the fecondly, the-schools-themassives mare. somellines...reluctant to accept sons Pr of cup the comparatively - public money because they fear that
"Good" evening," "deár
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