TNAG-0472-FCO40-537-Hong-Kong-government-policy-on-education-1974 — Page 151

29

HKK 9/2

CONFIDENTIAL

3

no

Lurface

1 Dingiddy Bid

૪)

21/5

Mr Youde

PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts

HONG KONG: DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION

1.

Lord Goronwy-Roberts may like to know how matters stand in the appointment of a new Director of Education. The background is that Hong Kong have embarked on a programme of expansion in the field of education; accompanying this expansion are growing problems of administration which the present staff of the Education Department are not considered capable of handling.

2.

Earlier this year the Director of Education, Mr J Canning, announced his intention to resign in August this year. I am not sure if any pressure was put on him by the Governor. Mr Canning's administra- tion has not been a success. The Governor is anxious to get the best possible successor, who should ideally be an Administrator rather than a Teacher. For this reason he asked Mr Thornton, the ODM's Chief Education Adviser, to make preliminary, informal enquiries among those

Directors and Chief Education Officers made redundant as a result of the

reorganisation of Local Education Authorities in this country.

3.

After discussion in Hong Kong with Miss Dees, another CDM Education Adviser, earlier this year, the Governor outlined three suggestions for filling the Director's post. These, in order of preference, were:

(i) A top-ranking UK candidate to be appointed as Director. (ii) À local administrator (expatriate or Chinese) to become

Director, supported by a top-ranking UK man as professional consultant. For such a post, a really first-rate Chief Education Officer from a large Education Authority could be considered; alternatively, a seconded officer, perhaps of Under-Secretary rank, from the Department of Education and Science, with administrative experience over various areas of education, might be suitable if

the DES could be persuaded to make such a secondment

possible.

(iii) A UK appointment could be made as an extra appointment at

Deputy level, with a view to the successful candidate becoming Director later on when he had experience under the local administrator of alternative (ii).

CONFIDENTIAL

/4.