CO129-558-8 Revision of salaries 19-8-1936 - 11-2-1937 — Page 107

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

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No departure has been made from the existing system under which the long scale for Administrative Officers rises to the maximum subject only to efficiency bars, while the standard scales in "ordinary civil" departments and in "professional and technical" departments are normally broken by promotion bars, beyond which advancement depends upon the occurrence of vacancies in a higher grade. The practice of offering higher initial salaries in the case of those departments for which officers are normally recruited at a later age than for the Administrative Service (because they are required to spend a period in obtaining either further professional training or practical ex- perience) is also retained. On the other hand the main features of the Administrative scale the stationary salary during the period of probation, the double increment after the first efficiency bar, and the abolition of the efficiency bar at £720 have been extended to the other scales in so far as they are applicable. The scales are so arranged that in all cases the efficiency bar occurs on the comple- tion of 9 years' service.

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The actual standard scales proposed for application to the different departments are set out in the table attached to this memorandum. The special considerations which have been taken into account in framing these scales are discussed in the succeeding para- graphs. It will be understood that when the standard scales have been settled the method and extent of their application in the dif- ferent Dependencies will be a matter for separate consideration. In particular, while it is desirable that all Dependencies should offer similar terms up to the "promotion bar" in each case, it is recognised that in some instances the establishments of the smaller Dependencies will not afford scope for posts on incremental scales above the bar.

EDUCATION

4. Consideration has been given to the question whether Education Officers should properly be placed on the professional rather than the administrative scale (as is at present the case in West Africa).

It has been suggested that the professional scale is more suited to the organisation of an Education Department in that it involves a promotion bar at £840, beyond which advancement depends upon the occurrence of vacancies. Thus providing for Headmasters or Senior Inspectors to be in a higher grade than their assistants.

In considering these suggestions it is necessary to bear in mind the effect which a change in the present system may have upon recruitment. Education Officers are largely drawn from the same general sources as Administrative Officers, but apart from those who feel a special vocation for educational work, the majority of the candidates who present themselves from the Universities are more attracted by administrative than by educational work, and there is a tendency for the better candidates to seek employment on the adminis- trative side. This is a tendency which, in view of the importance of the educational services and in particular of the increasing need, as the native population themselves take a larger part in the educa- tional work in their own countries, for wise and intelligent super- vision and guidance, is not in the interests of the Service as a whole; but if the general level of remuneration in the educational services is to be reduced below that of the Administrative Service, no steps which can be taken to counteract it are likely to be effective.

Further, under the present system, Education Officers in most of the African Dependencies are not appointed on particular scales of salary or for particular duties, but are for the most part available

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