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It is more regrettable than surprising that the schools feel compelled to devote something like one hundred per cent. of their energies to this examination. In fairness it should be added that there is an age-old tradition in China that the only road to respect and a comfortable life is through examinations. And certificates from schools that boys have reached such and such a class have recognised employment values, the School Certificate itself being of course the final and most valuable piece of paper of the series.
Further, migration from school to school is easy and very common-one boys' school of about 300, with a four years' course, had 150 new boys in one year recently. Failure in a promotion examination may, as has already been said, result in a boy's departure for another school; there can unfortunately be little doubt that if a school gave a substantial allowance of time to, say, Physical Training, or to any other activity without a direct and obvious examination value, it would lose many of its pupils, unless of course all the English schools made the same reform at the same time.
The more, however, that Chinese boys and girls insist upon being prepared for this examination, the more important it is that such preparation should take place naturally in the course of a good general education, and that it should not be a substitute for such an education. The syllabus of the Examination, and the University's detailed regulations governing it, are open to criticisms, some of which have already been indicated.
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There is, however, another objection, of major importance, to the present state of affairs. It is a one-path "' education suited well enough in some ways to those who are going to continue their studies at the University, and not in all ways ill-suited to the needs of those who go straight from school into commerce.
But it has already been made clear, and is indeed only what we should expect, that no more than a very small minority of the pupils in the schools find their way to the University. Many others go into commerce, but many also, especially girls, do not.
Moreover, a great many do not survive to Class 1 at all, and consequently cannot enter for the School Certificate Examination, although their school work is in great measure meaningless except as preparation for that examination. Statistics supplied to the writer show that, taking Government and Grant-in-Aid schools together as jointly concerned with the School Certificate Examination, there were early this year 1,283 pupils in Class 7, 1,224 in Class 6, 1,267 in Class 5, and only 584 in Class 1. In other words, more than half the pupils fail to stay the course.
It is recommended that the curriculum in Government and Grant-in-Aid schools should be so widened as to provide rather more liberally than at present for the broad human needs of the pupils. In particular, more attention should be paid to their health, and adequate time allowed for regular Physical Training. Since they demand a certificate to the effect that they have carried through their studies satisfactorily, an examination should be held, for the award of such certificates, at about the age of 16, when most of the pupils do in fact leave school. The range and standard of the examination should be determined by those responsible for the schools-i.e., by the Head Masters and Head Mistresses with the Director of Education and his staff. It is unlikely that the University would be able to admit students to its various faculties on such an examination; apart from other objections, the standard attained in English would not be high enough. Entire responsibility for the examination, including the setting of the papers and marking of the scripts, should be assumed by an Examination Board nominated by the Director of Education. In planning the syllabus it should not be forgotten that something less than the whole school week will be available for examination subjects, unless indeed these subjects include in future those activities for which at present little time or none at all is allowed, such as Physical Training, Music, and Arts and Crafts. The first of these certainly, the others probably, should have an adequate allowance of time* in anything that can claim to be a liberal education.
The few who wished to stay on at school with a view to being admitted to the University would have a year or two's post-Certificate work and would of course have to pass any test, by way of Matriculation, which the University thought fit to impose. If no Matriculation Certificates any kind were issued, but successful candidates were notified of their success merely by the posting of a list in the University, this should do much to prevent pupils offering themselves for Matriculation without any intention of studying at the University.
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For Physical Training this should be a dally period compulsory in all Government and Grant-in-Aid schools,
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(5). TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Technical Education in Hong-Kong has hitherto consisted, first, of a number of evening classes, held in various places and connected with each other only by the name (Technical Institute covering them all) and by the supervision of them all by the Director of that Institute, and, secondly, of the Junior Technical School. It will be convenient to consider these two separately.
The classes of the Technical Institute have admitted students, aged 15 and upwards, at a charge, with the exception of one class, of $10 a term (two terms in the year). They have been held for the most part in the premises of Government schools, and taught mainly by members of the staffs of those schools.
The present Director is one of the two Inspectors of English Schools.
The subjects of instruction have been grouped into four sections, viz.: Engineering, Science, Commerce, and the Training of Teachers-to which last further reference is made later in this Report.
The Engineering section includes courses, to last four years, for apprentices in the engineering, shipbuilding, and building industries. These courses have been started with the active co-operation of the Dock Companies and of the Building Contractors' Association. It is understood that these bodies have agreed to full-time day courses, recognised as constituting part of the apprenticeship, being substituted for the present evening classes as soon as the completion of the proposed new premises for the Technical Institute makes this possible. It is obvious that this would be a very great improvement on present arrangements.
The Junior Technical School was opened in February, 1938, and provides a four-year course for the pre-apprenticeship training of prospective artisans. The four years include a preliminary year, which is devoted mainly but not entirely to improving the pupils' knowledge of English and of Arithmetic. This has been found necessary to enable the course proper to be followed without excessive difficulty. Many of the recruits are sons of men employed in the Docks, including His Majesty's Dockyard, or in the Public Works Department. The difficult task of selection from the 350 candidates first interviewed seems to have been performed with success, only five out of the forty chosen having had subsequently to be removed from the school. The age of admission is about 124. There were about 250 candidates this year. An obvious and serious difficulty in staffing at the beginning of the school's existence was overcome in a reasonably satisfactory manner. The Principal, brought out to his post from home, did not include among his qualifications, otherwise ample, a knowledge of Chinese. Chinese teachers possessing at once a good knowledge of English and thorough competence in the more technical subjects of the school's curriculum were not to be found. The boys knew little English, some of them none. That this pretty problem has been solved is much to the credit of the school, which may be regarded as having made a thoroughly good start.
As has already been mentioned, it is proposed to erect new premises to serve the purposes of a Trades School, and to provide, partly in daytime courses for apprentices, and partly in evening classes, for the educational needs of those employed in various branches of the building and engineering industries. A comprehensive scheme has been prepared for the systematic development of Technical Education in the Colony, for which a demand undoubtedly exists. Before any extensive building is done, it is of course necessary to look ahead as far as possible in order to make sure that the demand is likely to continue. The fact that a first-rate technical training may be used by some ex-pupils as a vocational asset in China proper rather than in Hong Kong is not to be regretted. There are probably two things, closely connected with each other, which China needs more than anything else, at any rate in most of her provinces, viz.: honest administration and higher standard of living for the mass of the people. If Hong Kong, geographically a part of China, can contribute anything, by example and by education, towards these two needs, then the Chinese will have no reason to regard the existence of a British Colony in what may be called their Isle of Wight as anything but a blessing.
It will be well, if the term "Technical Institute "'continues to be used, to confine it to these activities which can collectively be regarded as Technical Education, and to find some other name for evening classes for teachers or for would-be matriculants. Nor does there seem any good reason for the Directorship of Technical Education being held in the future by one of the Inspectors of Schools. The present arrangement may have been justified at the time it was made, but as a general rule it is not desirable that an Inspector, who is or should be fully occupied in the daytime, should assume evening duties in addition for a great part of the year. The value of his visits to schools of any sort depends in part upon his familiarity with schools of many sorts, but also in part upon the good use of his leisure in reading and other forms of
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