SAVINGRAM
36
Cólonial Secretariat file No. 5/1570/47
Encl.1,2,& 3.
To Secretary of State for the Colonies
From the Governor, Hong Kong.
Date //ch May, 1948..
No. 172
(2)
(2)
-IVED
21 MAY 1948
Staff.
53723/1/41
139
Racks 22/5
Ricard
My staff savingram No. 141 of 20th April, 1948. Time scale for Education Department. I attach for your consideration a memorandum sub- mitted by certain senior officers in the Education Department which they have requested should be forwarded to you.
2. The writers compare the position of Education officers under the revised salary scheme with that of other professional officers and complain that the salary recommended for the Director of Education is lower than the salaries assigned to certain other heads of major departments, that there is a complete lack of superscale posts for Education officers apart from the post of the Director and that the time scale for masters commences below the scales for engineers, surveyors etc., and does not go up to such a high maximum as the scales for those officers.
3. The salary recommended by the Salaries Commission for the Director of Education is in keeping with the relationship which the holder of this post previously held to the heads of other major departments. I shall be addressing you shortly on the question of the grading of certain heads of departments including the Director of Education but in the meantime I recommend that the petitioners should be informed that no altera- tion in the salary of the post is at present proposed.
4. The contention that there is a complete lack of superscale posts apart from the post of Director is presumably based on the use of the word "superscale" in paragraph 32 and in Appendix III of the Salaries Commission's Report. There are in fact twelve posts for men above the time scale and six for women. These posts above the time scale are composed of two posts of Senior Inspector, four of Principal of Schools, three of Inspector of Vernacular Schools on personal salaries, and three of Senior Master: on the women's side, there are one post of Principal, one of Woman Inspector of Schools and four of Senior Mistress. It is true that if the recommendations in my savingram No. 141 are accepted, the grade of Senior Master and Senior Mistress will disappear and that future Inspectors of Vernacular Schools will not proceed above the maximum of the time scale but even so the normal prospects of advancement above the time scale are not inconsiderable and compare favourably with those in other departments staffed by professional officers. A recent proposal by the Director of Education for the creation of additional posts for one Deputy Director and four Assistant Directors in addition to the existing number of posts for Principals and Inspectors was rejected after careful considera- tion. A modified version of this proposal was considered in connexion with the draft estimates for 1948/49 and although the creation of two additional posts for Inspectors of Vernacular
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