TNAG-0472-FCO40-537-Hong-Kong-government-policy-on-education-1974 — Page 162

SECRET

For discussion

on 7th May 1974

XCS(74)2

Copy No 2.

MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Education Ordinance (Chapter 279)

LAST

REF

NEX

REF.

PETITION ON BEHALF OF MISS FUNG FEE-FOONG UNDER SECTION 68(4)

26

Section 68(1) of the Education Ordinance (Chapter 279), empowers the Director of Education, inter alia, to refuse a permit to teach if he is satisfied that "the envrionment in which the person has received any part of his education has been such as to make the person unsuitable as a teacher in Hong Kong". Subsection (4) pro- vides for appeal to the Governor against a refusal by way of a petition. Subsection (5) allows the Governor either to reverse the Director of Education's refusal or to refer it to the Governor in Council who may confirm or reverse the Director of Education's decision.

2

It has for many years been the standard practice of the Director of Education to refuse permits to applicants who have been educated, or who have taught, in China since 1950 and who have lived in Hong Kong for less than three years at the time of the application. This policy has been closely adhered to because of the high risk that such teachers will have absorbed communist beliefs and will be in a strong position to influence their pupils in that direction. If an applicant has lived in Hong Kong for more than three years, his attitudes and activities during this period are examined before the Director of Education makes his decision.

A

3

Miss FUNG Fee-foong is aged 40. She was educated in Hong Kong to the age of 18 and then, in 1951, went to China. According to the Principal of the Anglican St. Catherine's School (where Miss Fung wishes to teach) the reason was that she could not at that time pursue advanced music studies in Hong Kong. Miss Fung says that she studied at Yen Ching and Peking Normal Universities and at the Shanghai Conservatory until 1959. From then until she returned to Hong Kong in 1973, she taught music in the Inner Mongolian Teachers' Training College. On return to Hong Kong permission was sought for her to teach in St. Catherine's School but since she so clearly failed to meet the normal criteria, the Director of Education formally refused.

4

The Principal of St. Catherine's School has petitioned the Governor against the Director of Education's decision. A copy of the petition is at Annex A.

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