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(a) it provides a secondary vernacular education ("middle school") for school pupils, and (b) it has normal classes which train men student teachers, giving them We consider a two years' course. The annual output averages about six teachers. the output to be insufficient for the adequate staffing of urban vernacular schools and we think the training of such teachers requires a separate institution with its own staff.
The Vernacular Normal School for Women provides a four-year course of Here again we con- training. The annual output averages about eight teachers. sider the output insufficient. To attract sufficient numbers of suitable students, however, both men and women, the pay and prospects of vernacular teachers in general will have to be much improved.
(2) Evening Classes.
The Evening Institute has classes providing a three-year course for both men We consider these and women. The annual output averages about 25 teachers. evening classes open to the same criticisms as the corresponding classes for Anglo- Chinese teachers. The system is a makeshift one and cannot give really adequate training.
It must be remembered that vernacular teachers are required not only for vernacular schools, but also for teaching Chinese studies in the Anglo-Chinese schools. At present, we are informed, it is almost impossible to get such teachers who are capable of taking the higher Chinese studies in the upper classes of these schools. There is also a considerable body of opinion in favour of replacing English by Chinese as the medium of instruction in the lower classes of the Anglo- Chinese schools—a scheme which if carried out would largely increase the demand for trained vernacular teachers. It is also considered desirable that some at any rate of this class of teacher should have a knowledge of English which would enable them to start instruction in English in the top classes of the vernacular primary schools.
Q
We recommend accordingly:
new
"That Government should take immediate steps to provide a training centre or centres in Hong Kong for training men and women vernacular teachers. That the new centre or centres should provide a course of two years' duration, and that the scholastic qualification for admission to this course should be the completion of the Senior Middle School course, but that the Director of Education should have power in his discretion to admit students with lesser qualifications to the course so long as this may be necessary to secure an adequate supply of teachers, provided that this discretion shall be subject to review after 5 years.
That the new centre or centres should accommodate the existing Normal Classes of the Vernacular Normal and Middle School and the Vernacular Normal School for Women and have room to allow for expan- sion up to a total of 200 students.
That the new centre or centres should be staffed and managed on the same lines as the centre for Anglo-Chinese teachers already recom- mended.
That Government assistance should be provided where necessary for the students in training.
That as soon as a sufficient supply of trained teachers from the new centre or centres is available, the evening classes should be discontinued.
The above recommendations are based in the main on our view that Government should undertake greater responsibility for primary vernacular education particularly in the way of establishing its own vernacular schools; they are also based to some extent on our view that the adoption of
+
:
7
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Chinese as the medium of instruction in Classes 8 and 7 of the Anglo- Chinese schools may be desirable and that an experiment in this direction should forthwith be made in a number of Anglo-Chinese schools.
We support the views expressed in the memorandum of the Heads of Grant Schools (attached as Appendix I to the Committee's report) and in connexion with paragraph 3 (f) on page 9 thereof are of opinion that it is desirable that the prospects of vernacular teachers should be so improved as to attract students passing out from Anglo-Chinese schools to the career of a vernacular school teacher, in order that among other things there should be a sufficient supply of teachers to teach English in the last year of the primary vernacular school."
5. We regret that this report is not unanimous since Mr. G. R. Sayer, whose views are set out in the minority report attached, found himself unable to support most of our recommendations.
Appendix I.
R. E. LINDSELL (Chairman),
D. J. SLoss,
L. FORSTER,
F. SHORT,
LI TSE FONG,
C. G. SOLLIS.
MEMORANDUM ON THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS
BY
REPRESENTATIVE HEADMASTERS OF GRANT-IN-AID SCHOOLS.
The question of training teachers in Hong Kong covers:
(1) Vernacular Teachers,
(2) Student Teachers,
(3) Graduate Teachers.
Vernacular Teachers.
(a) Vernacular Teachers teaching in the Primary Schools and in the lower
classes of the Secondary Schools,
(b) Vernacular Teachers fitted to teach language, literature and history
in the higher classes of Secondary Schools.
To each of these groups one preliminary remark seems to apply. It is a matter of common knowledge that the written language of China is at present, and has The issue is been for the past decade or so undergoing very rapid evolution. sharply set between the older classical school, with its enormous insistence on memory, its reluctance to depart from old, stereotyped forms, and its very com- pressed and difficult style; and the newer school, inseparably connected with the name of HU SHIH, which has developed the freer, easier, yet beautiful modern style. An apt parallel lies between the present state of things in China and the Europe of four centuries ago, which witnessed the rise of vernacular literature.
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