CO129-603-3 Education Department- revised grant code 24-1-1949 - 28-12-1949 — Page 37

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2.

Code should be made, so that the recurrent grant should be, for example, a proportion of the cost of salaries plus an adequate capitation grant The effect of the present arrangements is giving rise to great anxiety. 7. I am instructed to draw your attention to the complete conflict with the principles of paragraph 2 (b) and (c) above which is created by the whole of the present tendency to direct in detail from the Education Department the everyday management of the Schools as evidenced, for instance by recent requirements making compulsory the collection of fees monthly, forbidding entrance examination fees, determining the date of medical reports, restricting the amount and frequency of voluntary charitable giving, and so forth. It is urged that regulations which may be necessary to control schools which are run for private profit should not be applied to Grant Schools which have responsible Managers, but that the latter should be asked to observe the minimum requirements, the Government having the powe to reduce or withdraw grants if the required standard of educational efficiency i not maintained.

8. With regard to Article 16 of the Amended Code, the Meeting considered that a charge allowance of two hundred dollars a month is a totally inad- equate remuneration for the responsibilities and duties of Heads of Schools. The present system of payment of Heads, may, and does, lead to Assistant Teachers' receiving higher salaries than the Heads. The Meeting, therefore, requests that a separate salary scale for Heads should be introduced or that the lines of the most recent Burnham Scale recommendations should be followed. 9. I am instructed to press for the speedy implementation of the Clause providing for the payment of an Overseas Allowance to expatriate teachers which has been in the Code since 1946. Not only does indecision on this point make the task of recruiting staff from England desperately difficult, but the payment of such an Allowance has already been written in to the agreements made with certain European teachers since the War. To quote the same Report once again, "The scale (of salaries) should be calculated in such a way as to attract teachers with the qualifications assumed by Government to be necessary". The Meeting could see no reason why the inp- lementation of this Clause should have been subject to so great a delay. 10. Finally, I am instructed to say that representatives of the Anglican Grant Schools' Councils are entirely ready to meet with you, Sir, to discuss further any of the points raised in this document; or alternatively to arrange for a deputation from the Councils to discuss them with the Colonial Office authorities and Mr. Rowell in London in July of this year,

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

The Acting Director of Education,

Hong Kong.

G. A. Goodban,

Ag. Hon. Sec. Anglican Grant Schools Meeting.