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mental refreshment. Moreover, the present state of affairs amounts to the existence of an uninspectable private domain within the general system of education in the Colony.
(6). THE VERNACULAR MIDDLE SCHOOL.
This Government school came into being in its present form in 1921. It was intended from the start to devote its time more to Chinese than to English studies, and especially to the study of the Chinese classics. Its staff is entirely Chinese. At first pupils did not proceed from this school to the University, perhaps because of the difficulty of a Matriculation which was mainly an English examination, but for some years now they have been doing so. This change, and the insistent demand on the part of Chinese pupils for a knowledge of English, have had some effect on the time-table and on the character of the school. In the first year of the school's course 22 hours are given to study in Chinese and six to study in English. In the seventh and penultimate year 164 hours are given to English and 113 to Chinese. For the final year of the course the corresponding figures are not available, but it is believed that an even greater proportion of time is given to English; for some of their English studies the pupils attend classes under European teachers in a neighbouring Government school.
It is evident that this school tends to lose its special character and to become much like other Government schools, except for the absence of a European staff. It owed its origin partly to the conviction that Chinese was not taught satisfactorily in the Government English schools -a conviction for which there seems to have been good grounds. It is changing because it has not itself been able to teach English satisfactorily; the school is thus in the same danger as other Hong Kong schools of falling between two stools. On the other hand, if this school, whilst continuing to give substantially more time to Chinese studies than is given by other Government schools, and to be staffed only by Chinese teachers, succeeds in obtaining School Certificate results substantially as good as those of the others, certain interesting and important inferences will suggest themselves. The school appears at this moment destined either to lead other Government schools by achieving their results more economically, or to lag well behind them. Its future will be worth watching.
(7). THE BRITISH SCHOOLS.
These schools are maintained by the Government exclusively for the children of those residents in the Colony who are not only British subjects but Europeans. They are sometimes referred to as European British.' In other words, Chinese, Indians, and Portuguese are not admitted to these schools. This might appear at first sight a regrettable segregation of children from each other. A moment's reflection, however, shows that there is a very strong case for it on the ground of language alone. It is not possible to give satisfactory instruction in English to British and Chinese boys and girls of the same age together.
There are three primary schools, taking children from the age of about five to about nine or ten, and there is one other school (the Central British) which has an age-range of about nine to about seventeen, and so contains both primary and secondary classes. This last-named school is very badly housed, and the new premises which, it is understood, are to be built are certainly needed. When visited by the writer it appeared to be rather lavishly staffed, with fourteen full-time and three part-time assistants for about 250 pupils on the books. It would be well to review the staffing at the first opporunity, which may possibly, owing to the small size of some of the present classrooms, only occur when the new premises are ready. As in all the Government schools, a staff in some degree larger than would be required at home is rendered necessary by the fact that, at any rate in the hot weather, one or two teachers will always be absent on home leave.
In 1914 the Director of Education wrote:-"The Government realises the justice of making the ratepayers contribute as little as possible towards the cost of this special class of schools, and the fees are therefore put as high as the parents can afford." It is open to doubt whether that is true now; in 1988 the fees were $90-i.e., just about one seventh of the gross cost per head. $90 means in sterling from about £4 10s. to about £9, according to the rate of exchange. There would not appear to be any hardship in making the parents contribute a rather higher proportion of the total cost, and this could be done either by increasing the fees or by reducing the staff, or both. Similar remarks apply to the primary schools of this category, though it is true that in one at least of these schools small classrooms make expensive staffing inevitable. The school last referred to is the Peak School. When seen by the writer its classrooms were unduly crowded, and there is no doubt that more accommodation is needed. There is no room on the site, however, for building out from the present structure, and the only alternative is to add a storey. If that is structurally possible, a room should be built big enough for assembly, and this would release a small classroom to serve as an office for the Head Mistress. No increase of staff can be recommended. If the addition of a storey is impossible, it will be necessary, sooner or later, to build a new school.
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III. CONTROL, ADMINISTRATION, AND INSPECTION.
The Education Department has at its head a Director, and under him there is a headquarters staff consisting of six Inspectors, two British and four Chinese, and eight Chinese Sub-inspectors. The Medical Officer for Schools, though his office is at present in the same building as that of the Director, reports and is primarily responsible not to him but to the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services. The clerical staff appears to be sufficient for present needs.
The post of Director of Education was created in 1909, and has always been occupied by a Cadet. There have twice been Acting Directors who were not Cadets. This arrangement has its obvious and inherent disadvantages. The Cadet, coming to Education from some other Government Department, has to undertake work of which he knows nothing at all. In so far as his work consists in the supervision and control of an administrative machine, the situation of a newly-appointed Director does not differ from that of a new head of any other Department. But in Education as in other departments the cost of administration is justified only by the efficiency of the service administered-in other words, and putting it a trifle crudely, the office
exists for the schools and not vice versa. In Hong Kong the Director normally comes to his X
task knowing nothing about schools, except what he may have learned as a parent, and with no knowledge of the theory and practice of education current elsewhere. When he tries to find out what the schools are doing, he is unable to compare this with anything done or attempted in other places. He does not know whether the aims of his schools are the right aims, if indeed it ever occurs to him to ask what their aims are. His purely administrative work is considerable, and it naturally takes him a little time to master the mere routine of his job. There have been six Directors or Acting Directors since 1924, and it is, therefore, probable that during most of that time the head of the Department has been mainly occupied in learning his way about his own office, with the natural result that continuity of policy and effective educational leadership have been lacking.
On the other hand, there are certain advantages. As a Cadet, the Director is of equal status with the heads of other Departments in the Colony, and thus better able to keep his end up," and to see that the service of Education is not starved in the Estimates. He has some knowledge, varying, naturally, with the individual's linguistic talents, of the Chinese classical language and of the Cantonese vernacular spoken in Hong Kong. He has presumably, as the result of a lengthy residence, some understanding of the native mind and character. None of these qualifications would be likely to be possessed by a stranger brought in to the headship of the Department, as an expert educationalist, from, say, England.
On the whole, however, it seems clear that the disadvantages of the system outweigh its advantages.
As for inspection, the work of the two British inspectors, both of them usually ex-head masters of Hong Kong schools, has tended to be more and more office work. Schools are visited regularly, it is believed, but inspection has been mainly an administrative matter. Sometimes useful suggestions have been made in schools, but in the main there has been little attempt to give educational leadership and guidance. New teachers, British and Chinese alike, have not been seen at work by anyone but their own Head Teachers during the critical first year of their service. It is not intended and would not be just to blame any individuals for this, but it is an unsatisfactory state of affairs, and leaves the School Certificate Examination as the sole criterion by which a school's efficiency can be judged. Indeed, the writer derived the strong impression that a really searching inspection would be regarded in some of the Government schools as almost an outrage.
Now it is time that this ceased. Hong Kong is a small Colony, and has too long been under the temptation to regard its own ways as educationally irreproachable. It is true that some teachers have given time when at home on leave to the observation and study of various educational activities, and they deserve credit for it, but this is not enough. The Colony's educational system needs more than anything else a breath of fresh air from outside.
The
It so happens that there is a very good opportunity for doing what is needed now. post of Senior Inspector of English Schools is vacant, and it is strongly recommended that the vacancy should be advertised with a view to the appointment of the best man obtainable from outside the Colony. Varied educational experience, breadth of outlook, the force of character
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