CO129-575-11 Education Department- 22-12-1938 - 30-5-1939 — Page 12

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heard from reliable sources when

in Hong Kong that the University

trained Chinese teacher was neither

sufficiently educated nor efficiently

trained for his work. He was inclined

with Mr. Sayer to disagree with the

view that a four-year course followed

by a one-year course for a teacher's

diploma was the shortest time in which

the pick of the local intelligentsia could

be

trained as competent teachers; four

years in all ought eventually to be

sufficient. The suggestion that five

years was a desirable time was an indication

of the vicious circle which made it very

difficult to introduce any effective

reform. The first year of the under-

graduates' course at the University was

taken up in great part in so improving the

students' English that they could follow

courses of literature at University

level in the University. They did not

really begin University degree work until

their

C