CO129-603-2 Education Department- revised grant code 5-4-1948 - 6-1-1949 — Page 85

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from year to year, depending on the category of teachers employed, it also seems that the present method of yearly

The assessment of grant is the only workable method. method of calculating the amount of Block Grant suggested in (3) is a poor imitation of the present method and not so well adjusted to variations in need, which variations under a Block Grant would have to be met by variations in fees charged.

The present grant does in fact give what amounts to a Block Grant, approved in advance, for all the items of "other Charges" other than Repairs and Equipment and pays for teachers salaries exactly according to yearly needs.

If a Block Grant is calculated on the basis of fee receipts being at a certain level and the Managers have complete freedom to alter the fees at will, it is obvious that at any time the actual grant paid might no longer bear any real relation to need, and if the fees were increased

This is the case could be more than was really needed. at present with some of the Anglican Schools which have large uns pent balances.

Under the present Code Grant School Managers in making appointments to teaching staff must give preference to Northcote Training College and Hong Kong University graduates. This is thought desirable because -

(1)

Hong Kong public funds should be used in the first instance to support Hong Kong trained and educated teachers.

(ii) Teachers from China have not in general the desirable contact with English educational methods and culture, and are likely to have a predominantly Chinese rather than Hong Kong outlook, and will probably consider allegiance to China before allegiance to Hong Kong.

(iii) Appointment of teachers from China whose antecedents

cannot be easily checked makes it easier for

infiltration of undesirable political elements, and apart from this the general standards of discipline and activities allowed in many schools and universities in China leave much to be desired.

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If under a Block Grant System freedom from control was also given, School Managers would be free to appoint as many teachers as they wished from China, and they would not be likely to view

that the matter from the same point of view as this Government is with a view to the needs and advantages of Hong Kong as a whole - but rather from the limited point of view of the staffing needs of their own school.

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The eleven points given above indicate that the principle of freedom which Bishop Hall seeks is fundamentally inconsistent with the provisions of the present Code and could not be made consistent without completely changing it.