No 110.
My Lord,
TRET
24592
RAL 19 MAY 20
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG. 29th March, 1920.
328
I have the honour to inform Your Lordship that I have had under consideration the question of increasing the Capitation Grants made by Government to schools under the Grant Code in this Colony. My attention was first drawn to this matter by an appeal for greater assistance from the Committee of the Diocesan Boys' School who base their request on the great increase in the cost of maintenance and in the salaries of the staff required as compared with expenses when the present rate of Capitation Grants was fixed, namely in 1910, and quote the greatly increased support that has been given in the United Kingdom during recent years to Secondary and Grammar Schools under Government supervision.
The matter has been most carefully considered by the Director of Education and I am satisfied that the time has come to grant greater assistance to those schools which have big and expensive senior classes in preference to those which have a majority of the children in the lowest classes. The Committee had asked for an all round increase of 50%, but, with the above object in view, I would recommend for your approval the following modification of the present rates of grants. At present the grant for each pupil in the Senior Classes 1, 2 and 3 is 824, for Classes 4, 5 and 6, 20, and for the Classes 7 and 8, £15, and I would suggest that the grants for the Senior Classes 1 and 2 be increased to $50 for each pupil, that the grants for Classes
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILNER, G.C.B.,
&c.,
&c..