Education of British Children
Government provides primary education for British children
in three mixed primary schools and one secondary school. The
curriculum is based on modern British methods and pupils are entered
for the local school certificate, Cambridge school certificate and
London matriculation.
The military authorities provide two primary schools for
children of the local garrison and these are run by its Army
Education Corps though scholarships are offered by Government for
free places in the British secondary school. This European
education costs Government £11,215 per annum for the secondary
department and £7,630 per annum for the primary departments.
The cost per student is £29. 19. and £19. 11. which
compares with £14. 8. and £10. 5. in the Chinese English schools.
The difference is due to the fact that the staff in the British
schools are all English men and women recruited from England (with
a sprinkling of locally employed married women) whose salaries are
naturally much higher than those of the Chinese graduates who
comprise 90% of the staff of Chinese schools. The products of these
schools have acquitted themselves well locally, and those who have
returned to England to continue their schooling have found themselves
under no handicap, and indeed have been in advance of their
contemporaries in some subjects.
In July, 1940, owing to the evacuation of women and
children, these schools closed down with the exception of a small
class (mainly Dutch, Scandinavian and American children) in the
Peak School.