CO129-567-1 Education Department 8-6-1938 - 3-2-1939 — Page 78

2.

98

question whether music and the other arts and crafts should

be taught in Hong Kong schools to Chinese children in

European or Chinese form. The Board resolved that in its

opinion in Government and Grant-in-aid schools in

principle it is desirable that every boy and every girl

should be taught some for

arts and crafts as a part of the ordinary curriculum.

The Board further resolved that a Sub-Committee should

form/0? music and some form of

be appointed to advise the Board of the nature and form

of the subjects to be introduced, the method by which

they should be introduced, and as to an appropriate time

for their introduction. The Director of Education himself

expressed the view that, by distinction from physical

training which should be, and is, compulsory, such

subjects as music and the arts and crafts should be

the sub-committer!, voluntary. The Board of Education accepted this report,

and I append a copy of it for your information. When

submitting it the Director of Education minuted that it

was adopted 'nemine contradicente' by the Board but that

he himself abstained from voting: presumably his view,

expressed above, remained unaltered. I myself concur

generally with its recommendations, provided that funds

for the not inconsiderable additional expenditure entailed

can be made available in due course.

4. All schools devote some period in the

curriculum to the teaching of hygiene, and whereas three

or four years ago hardly a single Chinese boy received

any physical training, to-day every pupil in all urban

English schools is receiving two periods of half an hour

each week at least, and several vernacular schools have

followed suit. Under the system of training special

instructors through the agency of the physical training

supervisor

Eε39-1