ces
holding the senior posts.
Since the Salaries' Commission, when the post of Headmistress of
Belilios Girls' School was made a special one carrying a maximum salary
of £950 per annum, and four senior posts at £750 per annum, were created,
the headship of Belilios Girls' School and three of the four senior posts
have always been held by non-graduates.
An efficient graduate mistress of about 10 years seniority in
Hong Kong is worse off financially as well as in other ways referred to
See Appendia § § 718
in section 2 than she would be in England, where she would have opportunities
of be coming a headmistress with. a salary up to £950 per annum before the age
of 40.
See appendia
84
It is surely not to the best interests of the service, that the
most highly qualified women teachers in the Education Department of Hong Kong
should go through their career, with the knowledge that there is no prospect
of any more responsible position than the one they occupy when they first come
to the Colony. Such a system is contrary to that prevailing in any other
Government Department or any business firm.
n view of this, the graduate mistresses read with interest paragraph 6 of your Excellency's despatch of 19th August, 1936 to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and hope that in future promotion to a senior post will 'not
be misused as an engine of automatic promotion.'
2.
Furthermore, whereas in England it is the graduates who have the
opportunities of positions of responsibility as senior mistresses and head- mistresses, in Hong Kong almost all such positions go to the non-graduate
mistresses. They can become headmistresses of the three Junior English
schools as well as the Girls' Secondary School, and Senior Mistress in
the only mixed school, the Central British.
Graduate mistresses who teach at Queen's and King's Colleges, the
Central British School and at Belilios Girls' School have no chance of
becoming even second assistant at any of these schools except Belilios
Girls' School.
Thirdly we should like to point out that, though the graduate
24