1932-04-14 — Page 7

THURSDAY, APRIL 14,

1932.

Retrenchment Commission's

Recommendations

Education---First Essential Is A Settled Government Policy

Curtail Secondary and Increase Primary Education.

Staffs Not Always Doing A Full Day's Work

The Commissioners wish to ace knowledge the assistance given ta them in their consideration of these most difficult problems of education by the Acting Director of Educa tion, who spared no effort to lay be- fore the Commissioners evidence their task. which might facilitate They would also record their ap- preciation of the aid given to them by the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- versity. Sir William Hornell, Kt, both in evidence and in the submis- sion of memoranda.

THE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION..

INSTALMENT Y.

THE CHINA MAIL.

Government's Comment. 80 far as Anglo-Chinese Schools Paragraph 7-A good sugges-are concerned, would have resulted tion, but unfortunately not one which in an increased cost in the current it will be possible to adopt in the year of a little over $7,000--though two schools, St. Joseph'a and the Immediate future. Inspectors of Vernacular Schools. Diocesan Boys' School would have The rate to be 8. Though the Commissioners suffered decreases. hesitate to criticize salaries they put in force next year would, had feel very strongly that the Inspec- they been adopted this year, have tore of Vernacular Schools and the led to an increase of approximate-

Government la satis Head Teacher of the Vernacularly $47,000. Middle School should not have been fed that the grants are well earn allotted sterling salaries. Elsewhere jed. Its only regret is that the pre- in this Report the Commissioners sent financial situation prevents it still have put forward their proposals from increasing the grants concerning the future of the Ver- further. nacular Middle School; but in re- gard to the above-mentioned officera they would urge the Government that, as the opportunity occurs, steps should be taken to remedy this matter of sterling salaries.

UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS, EXAMINATIONS GRANTS

AND FEES.

11.-The Commissioners find that

In all those schools, whether Govern- or non-Government, where

Government's Comment. Paragraph. 8.-This had already ment been acted upon before the Report secondary education is provided, the entered for the Hong of the Rotrenchment Commission pupils are

University Junior Local, was received, though the existing Kong rights of sterling salarled officers Senior Local, and Matriculation Examinations. The University-fee! cannot be diminished.

Fees at Government Secondary for each candidate is $12 for the

Schools

Junior Local, and $20 each for the 9-It is the considered opinion of Senior Local and Matriculation ex- the Commissioners that too much laminations. The Government pays fees for all ean- is done for secondary education and these entrance too little for primary. The former didates from Government and all without any candidates from Grant-in-Aid until recently they were divid-could be curtailed

Class

The Schools, this being in addition to I. and Class detriment to the Colony. has spent his entire service in the ed into

II., which frequently reault-method in which this should be done the Local Examinations Grants department,

ed in an officer having to la by raising the fees at Government awarded annually to each of the wait several years at the top of secondary schools. At present the Grant-in-Ald Schools concerned. In Class 11 until a vacancy oceurred in fees bear no relation to the cost of the Report of the Director of Educa- There is a tendency for providing the education. These tion for the year 1929 the following Class 1. masters to look upon the office posta should be raised until the gap be-fgures are given:-

two is appreciably re- as their right; but the Commission-tween the It

Inspectors of English Schools.

1

5. What has been said in regard to the qualifications necessary for the Director of Education applies in very great measure to the In-

English schools. spectors of would appear that seniority is the sole qualification at present con- sidered necessary for the holding of these positions, but in the view of the Commissioners. Inspectors should be able to command the re- speet of all members of the Depart-honic leave, or pursuing any course community, by the provision of a ment for their high qualifications, of studies during that period. their breadth of outbreak, as well as for their variety of teaching experi-

а

Grant-in-Aid Schools....$14,450 ers have had no great evidence of duced. In order to do this it willai Examinations Grant to the general eagerness of the masters first be necessary to price-cost the

En-Eatrance Fees to Local Ex- to fit themselves for the higher department and the schools. administrative posts by, for couragement should be given to to intelligent boys and girls, whose example, attaching themselves the Board of Education while

on further education will beneft the

Government's Comment.

that 5. To state Paragraph

aminations for Grant-in- . Aid Schools

In the Government schools 02 pupils were presented for the Senior and Matri- culation Examinations at a cost to Government in

number of free scholarships.

Government's Comment. Paragraph 9-The question of

Fees of at Government

con-122 pupils were presented for the Junior Local Ex- aminations at a cost to Government in Fees of ..

Grant-in-Aid Schools.

7,715

1,840

1,464

2-Owing to the apparent lack of a settled Government policy in paat years, the Commissioners have ap proached this controversial subject with diffidence, but Teel that if any effective retrenchment is to be ob- eace. These positions should be seniority has been the sole quali-raising the fees tained they must necessarily sub-filled by appointment.from Engestion for the posts of Inspectora secondary schools is being

This will not involve any mit recommendations of an econo- land.

of English Schools is incorrect. sidered by the Director of. Educa- mic nature for reorganisation. They unjust curtailment of the prospects The senior of the two present In-tion and by the Board of Education. consider that the lack of a settled of the masters in the Department in

spectors was not the most senior

In the Government schools all policy is in measure due to the Gov- view of the following facts, viz.master in the department at the 10. The bacis on which grants

of the Head- ernment permitting this important that the positions

time of his appointment, and there are paid should be rationalised. pupils in the two senior classes are Department to be administered by masters have of recent years been a master senior to the present Under the present system those non-obliged by regulation to enter for

as regards pre- Acting Directors, who possibly have greatly enhanced

second Inspector. Seniority is one Government schools known as Grant these examinations. A great num

who take the felt their responsibility to be limit- stige and salaries; that in addition

of the factors to be taken into ac-lin Aid Schools (English), almost ber of the pupils masterships with ed, owing to the uncertainty of their three senior

denominational, Matriculation examinations have no count when considering competing all of which are tenure of office.

special salary have been created; claims for promotion. To fill these receive a Science Grant, a Univer- intention of entering the University aleven if they obtain their matricula- and that all officers of the Depart-appointments from England would sity Examination Grant, and ment have now the privilege of

bo expensive, and, in Government's Capitation Grant. The Capitation tion certificate. In case of failure through scale of salary, whereas

opinion, to appoint a man from Grant is calculated on the average the pupills at liberty to present or yearly attendance, and is based on himself again the next year, agáin 9849833 2636142326438560683122

| England with no experience

understanding of the peculiar and a graduated scale, namely $60 per at the expense of the Government; particular problems of Hong Kong pupil in the Higher classes, $90 per and indeed there seems no obstacle would hardly be likely to prove a pupil in the Remove classes, and $20 to his continuing to do so indefinite-

The strictures

on the per pupil in the Lower Classes. ly.

12. The Commissioners mastere contained in the last sen-This differentiation according to tense are unjustified.

the class of the pupil naturally en-jconsidered the evidence, before them 6. The Commissioners feel that, courage schools to place as many and make the following recom-

higher mendations:- in view of the evidence placed before boys as possible in the

(a) That in future the entrance them as to the amount of actual in-classes, not always with proper re- specting work carried. out during gard to their scholastic ability.examination fees for all University the year, there is no justification The Commissioners do not consider examinations should be paid by the under conditions at present pre- the amounts of the grants allowed candidates themselves. Should the The Government and itself unable to vailing for two Inspectors of Eng to these schools excessive. lish schools. According to the Re-Grant in Aid Schools do very satis comply with this recommendation port of the Director of Education factory work in the Colony, and then they strongly urge:, 'that all for for the year 1929 all English-teach- according to the Report of the students who present themselves other-ing schools, both Government and Director of Education for 1929 more than once for the same ex- thousand pupils were aminaton shiould after the first time non-Government, were "visited" at nearly five

+

3.-The Commissioners bold strongly the view that the Director of Education should be chosen pre- eminently for his administrative ability and for his knowledge of Chinese, and not because his length of service in the Department as Head or Assistant Master in the schools gives him the position The Director through seniority. ought to be one having considerable standing in the eyes of the public, the Councils, and the Government. He should be above all schools, not

LOCAL SHARE MARKET.

Few Enquiries for Selected Stocks

QUIET.

The official summary issued by

There

of one. It is not to be expected, the Stock Exchange to-day states: that a master who has spent perhaps fifteen years in a common-room will, if promoted to the Directorship, be an unbiased eritie of his former colleagues. Nor is he likely to

be free from prejudice against educational methods other than his own, or against the methods and or- ganisation of the denominational schools in the Colony, which müst necessarily be governed according to the principles and financial cir cumstances of the religious denomi- It is nation to which they belong. essential that the Director should be above all party, broad minded, a good administrator, and therefore a good disciplinarian.

4-Knowledge of Chinese is also in the opinion of the Commissioners essential. Without it the Director, in his final decisions on educational and financial policy, is forced to rely entirely upon the reports of the Vernacular Inspectors concerning those schools in the Colony where Chinese is the sole medium of in- struction; and where the staff has no As the knowledge of English. granting of Government subsidies is based on the Inspectora" reports,"a Director of Education who has no proficiency in Chinese necessarily taken upon himself the respon- sibility of spending public money without a personal knowledge, either of the principles inculcated into the minds of the students, or of the methods of teaching in these schools.

This is an undesirable condition of affairs especially in view of the fact that these students number some forty thousand; which number felkely to be greatly in- created in the future? 2: Jalan : Government's Comment. Paragraphi Band 4—1t1, '# It always has been, the aim of Gov.

...

were few enquiries some selected stocks, but wise the market ruled quiet.

Sales. Benguet Explorations, 29 cents. Ewo Cottons, Tls. 15. Star Ferries; -$91. Hong Kong Electrics, $74. ..Bayers. Union Insurances, $475. Benguets, $132.

Ducka, $2034.

Providents (Old), $4.85.

Providents (Old), $21⁄4-

Hotels (Cum. Rights), $134. Heng Kong Realties, $11.60. Chinese Estates, $95.

Benguet Explorations, 29 cents., Ewo Cottons, Tis. 15. Hong Kong Trams, $21. Star Ferries, $90.

Hong Kong Electrics, $74. Telephones (P.P.), $24,60. Sinceres, $18. Amusements, $28. Constructions (Now), $1,25. Govt. Loans, 8% Eremium:

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(b) That the Junior Local and are not satisfied that such visita re- therein. In view of the fact that

Local Examinations present in all cases thorough in-they are cheaper to run than those Senior spections, as from the evidence be-schools entirely maintained by the abolished, and that the. University! fore them it would seem that the Government, the suggestion has be approached by the Director of greater part of the time of these been made to the Commissioners Education with a view to instituting Inspectors of English Schoola is that the Government should increase an examination for a School Leav thesa ing Certificate: The Matriculation taken up with office work. The Its Anancial assistance to Commissioners consider that the schools rather than develop its own examination should remain- employment of such officers at A schools. The need of the present is means of entry to the University! maximum rate of £1,300 per annum for curtailment of expenditure; bat and should be only for those who to do office work is totally uncalled although the Commissioners con- have every intention if they paas of for. They recommend that the sider that, when the Colony's fin- proceeding to the University. As in Aid the system of entering all pupils in Director of Education should have ances improve," the Grant only one Inspector of English Schools should receive increased the Senior classes for the University Schools; and, in place of the second financial aid to permit of further Examinations would appear to be of Inspector, an officer, either a Junior development, they maintain that the value in: preventing possible over Cadet officer or a specially selected Government should retain its own attention to brilliant pupils at the member of the Senior Clerical and schools, and should endeavour to expense of the backward, the schools Accounting staff, as secretary. The make them models by which the should, in view of the recent high Director of Education would thus standard of non-Government schools percentage of failures in the Uni be relieved of a great amount of should be judged. It can readily be versity Examardo un THREE STAR clerical work which now devolves understood that the difference in ex-a high standard of annual examina upon him, and would therefore have penditure between Government and tion to prepare for the outside more time to devote to matters or Grant la Aid Sebocis is largely ac examinations baly those who have educational policy, and to acquiring counted for by the differences in a reasonable prospect of passing,I | a more thorough knowledge of all the method of recruitment af staff (c) That the Vice-Chancellor of those schools, both English and and the conditions of service. In the University be approached-with Vernacular, which come within his place, however, of the existing a view to restricting to a reasonabli jurisdiction,

graduated Capitation Grant it is minimum the study of Chinese Government's Comment. recommended that a flat rate of 380 classics necessary for the Local

| Examinations. Paragraph 6--The greater part per head be paid. To continue pay-

Government's Comment. of the time of the Inspectors is ment of larger grants, in respect taken up with visiting schools and of the senior classes, would be to Paragraph 12.-(a) At present secondary Government, in addition to paying the Government accepts the view place non-Government of the Director of Education that schools in an unduly favourable the examination fees of pupils, also the work of inspection requires two position, vis a vis the corresponding makes a grant in respect of the officers. The appointment of a Government schools with their number, presented. The amounts paid out in grants are considerably! further officer as a Secretary is not greatly increased fees.

larger than the amounts paid qut at present necessary.

The Commissioners would "Paragraph 10--Government pro, for fees. The Commissioners have further suggest that what the poses to introduce dat rate grants recommended that payment of the Enances of the Colony permit, and of 640 and $85 per capita for boys latter should cease. Government pre- In accordance with the custom in and girls, respectively in Anglers to abolish the grauta, and to 16.10 England, woman Inspector of Chinese Schools and $12 per cipita continue to pay the feed. This will 24.00 Schools might prove valuable ac in Vernacular Schools in 1832, be done baxt year.

Continued on "Page 8.3 50.00: quisition.

The proposal of the Commissioners in

Sellers. Union Insurances; $480. International' Assco, Tis: 4. Hong Kong Electrice;: $742 South Ching Enterprises, "$10.

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