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There are also 659 other private schools subject to registra- tion and inspection but receiving no financial assistance from funds at the disposal of the Director of Education. A "school" is defined in the Education Ordinance as "a place where ten or more persons are habitually taught. All such institutions fall
within the control of the Education Department.
2.-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.
These are either schools where the medium of instruction is English or for the most part English, or schools where the medium of instruction is Chinese.
Of four Government English Schools, usually classed as secondary schools, three have primary departments and eight classes take the pupils from the first steps in English to the Matriculation and Senior Local Examinations of the University of Hong Kong either of which constitutes the leaving certificate of these schools.
The twelve primary schools fall into two groups-four mixed schools being preparatory for the Central British School. which has no primary department, and eight "District" and Lower Grade schools, one of which is a school for Indians where Urdu takes the place of Chinese.
In those English schools which are attended by Chinese. usually known as Anglo-Chinese schools, the study of English and Chinese is carried on side by side, the pari passu system requiring that promotion shall depend on proficiency in both languages.
The Technical Institute, an evening school for adults. which is classed in Tables 1 and 2 as "vocational". is attended by persons desirous of receiving instruction in subjects for the most part germane to their daytime occupations,
Of the remaining Government schools the Vernacular Middle School, which has a Normal department for the training of Vernacular Teachers, is classed as a secondary school. There is also a Normal School for the training of Vernacular Women Teachers and a Normal School on the mainland which aims at providing Vernacular teachers for rural schools.
3. GRANT IN AID AND SUBSIDIZED SCHOOLS,
(i) The control of and assistance given to Grant in Aid Schools is regulated by the Grant Code. Of these schools six are English schools for Boys, six are English schools for Girls and four are Vernacular schools for Girls.
Of the above one English school for boys and one English school for girls are lower grade schools, the further education of the children being provided at parent institutions. remaining ten English schools, usually classed as secondary schools have primary departments,
The
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(ii) The Subsidized Schools are all Vernacular Schools and differ from the Vernacular Grant in Aid Schools only in the method by which financial assistance is afforded. The Subsidy system is found to be the most suitable way of implementing financial assistance to Vernacular schools and it is not proposed to add to the number of Vernacular schools under Code regulations.
4. UNAIDED SCHOOLS.
The pupils in the Unaided Schools constitute about half of the children under instruction in Hong Kong. The relations between them and the Director of Education are governed by the Education Ordinance of 1913.
(i) As will be seen from Table 2 the great majority of these schools are Vernacular schools and among them there is con- siderable difference as to quality. At one end are schools nearly good enough to be eligible for subsidy at the other end are ephemeral schools which come and go each year. Thus in 1929 193 new schools were granted registration and 164 closed.
(ii) The unaided English schools are either day schools or night schools, the former being on the whole of better quality. In 1929 16 new days schools and 42 new night schools were registered: 22 day schools and 45 night schools were closed.
Very few of these schools approach the standard of the Grant in Aid schools, nor are they able to provide such staff, premises or equipment as would enable them to do so.
Educationally there is little need for these schools and the demand for instruction in English which calls them into existence would be more satisfactorily met by additional District" or Lower Grade Government schools.
The great majority of the pupils in the three different classes of English schools are to be found in the junior schools and the junior departments of "secondary schools, and of these most leave before they reach Class 2 where in Government and Grant in Aid Schools they are required to sit for the Junior Local Examination of the University of Hong Kong.
Up to 1913, the date of the Education Ordinance, the policy or trend, as described by the then Director of Education, was "to encourage Upper Grade schools, both Government and Grant rather than Lower (irade schools'.
Though this tendency has been somewhat modified since pre-Ordinance days, the improvement is mostly in the field of Vernacular education and the existence of 185 English schools in which the teaching and the English are for the most part of an inferior quality shows that the demand for English is only partially satisfied by the more efficient Government and Grant in Aid schools
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