CO129-553-12 Education- report of Mr Burney's visit 28-3-1935 - 7-8-1936 — Page 75

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loo much

fire in many of them, and most of the teachers were

entirely untrained,

unsatisfactory?

The teaching profession was

In some of the schools, however,

the standard was now beginning to improve. The

pupils were learning to read properly, and to use the

Arabic notation in arithmetic instead of the abacus.

Por the most part, however, too much time was devoted

to studying the Chinese characters and Classics, without

any instruation in their meaning,

The Government and Grant-Aided schools had done Some good work, but had concentrated/upon the Hong Kong matriculation examination;

but the School Certificate Examination was now to take

the place both of this and of the Cambridge Junior

certificate examination. This change was open to the

objection that the education policy was being framed

for a minority. A larger proportion would sit for the

School Certificate examination. Concentration on work

for this examination was unsatisfactory; it did not,

Sh

for example, allow time for craft-work, or for domestic

science for girls. A curriculum in which approximately

half the available time was given to one foreign

language was not well planned, and, in any case, the

in all

training in English was not a respects satisfactory.

Teachsis

were

Either Training of Teachers. The training of

Emohran teachers was undertaken by graduates who had had an

or

ordinary training themselves and by Chinese teachers.

Some of the latter were graduates of Hong Kong

University, but there were others whose only training

had been that given in the Evening Institutes. In

Grant-Aided schools a great many teachers were in membres of religious

Holy Orders and their training would vary according

to their order.

Direction