(3) Private Schools. Owing to the Sino-Japanese trouble, six Middle Vernacular Schools were opened in the New Territories. These are boarding schools.
III. Vocational. (i) The Evening Institute is a collective name for the various evening classes held by the Education Department at different centres. These classes were held for seven months during the year, the maximum enrolment being 1,243 (907 male students). They were held in seven centres in the following subjects: English, Field Surveying (discontinued after the summer holidays owing to lack of support), Building, Engineering, Ship-building, Hygiene, Pedagogy (English and Vernacular), Book-keeping, Shorthand, and Physical Instruction. An Electrical Engineering class was started during the year. Instruction in Pedagogy (English) was, from September onwards, carried out during school hours. The fees payable are $10 per term for students taking general subjects, $5 per term for those taking the "Trade" courses, and $1 per term for those taking the Vernacular Teachers' course. Members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade are admitted on payment of half fees, and these are refunded when the final examination has been passed.
(i) The Junior Technical School. This Government institution provided courses in English and Workshop training for an average of 97 students during the year. The fees are $36 per annum, and boys, who enter the school at the age of 11 years, are given a three-year course. During 1938, the teaching of English was reorganised and now follows the "Oxford English Course". Workshop training is becoming more popular in the school.
(ii) The Government Trade School. This was officially opened by His Excellency the Governor on 12th April, 1938, and consists at present of three departments, viz. Wireless Telegraphy, Building, and Engineering. During the year, the equipment for the school was practically completed. The maximum enrolment was 144, but, as some students were removed as unlikely to become efficient, the average enrolment was 86. The fees payable amount to $48 per annum. Students who have successfully completed courses at the Junior Technical or the Trade Schools usually find little difficulty in obtaining employment in local firms. The Kowloon-Canton Railway, The Dock Companies, and the Royal Naval Yard take a special interest in boys leaving these schools.
(iv) The Government Vernacular Normal and Middle School. Two classes for the training of Vernacular teachers were attended by 23 students during the year. 10 students were in the second or final year, of whom six passed the annual examination. Some of these will be employed in Government Vernacular schools as vacancies occur; the others will go to subsidized Vernacular schools.
(v) The Tai Po Normal School. 43 students were enrolled during the year at this school, which provides a three-year course for the training of Vernacular teachers in the New Territories. Three students passed the final examination, and these will eventually be employed in Vernacular Rural Subsidized schools.
(vi) A number of unaided schools are now teaching Wireless Telegraphy and Radio Maintenance Work; others, such subjects as Painting, Motor Car Repairing, Bootmaking, and general Metal Working.
Chapter VI.
POST SECONDARY EDUCATION.
1. There is no post-Secondary Educational institution under the direct control of the Education Department.
2. The University of Hong Kong, opened in 1911, fulfils the need for post-secondary education for students from local schools. Students are admitted to the University into the faculties of Arts, Medicine, and Engineering on the results of the University Matriculation Examination.