APPENDIX 1
TEACHER TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
No educational system can attain the standards demanded by a competitive world unless the teaching profession is adequate in numbers and quality.
2. The Government believes that, in general, the ratio of teachers to pupils which is now adopted in Government, aided and assisted secondary schools is adequate in a period of rapid expansion. Any further improvement in this respect must be postponed until at least after the targets contained in this Paper have been achieved. Consequently, the estimate of our need for additional teachers during the next decade is based upon the maintenance of these ratios. This will be a formidable task.
3. Present enrolments in the public sector (that is to say, Government, aided and assisted schools and 'bought' places in private schools) are now about 160,000 in Forms I to III and about 50,000 in Forms IV and V-a total of 210,000. By 1979, there should be about 282,000 in Forms I to III and 86,000 in Forms IV and V-a total of 368,000.
4. To meet the needs of these extra 158,000 pupils, a substantial expansion in excess of the present strength of about 3,400 graduates and 1,550 non-graduate trained teachers in the public sector would be needed.
5. How is this heavy additional demand to be met? The two Universities will, in consequence of their approved expansion between now and 1978, substantially increase their output of graduates in the next few years. It is fair to assume that there will be a proportionate rise in the numbers of graduates who will enter the teaching profession. Nevertheless, it is clear that the demand for graduate teachers cannot be wholly met from local sources.
6. One solution would be to recruit graduate teachers from abroad. The prospects of doing so in sufficient numbers are not encouraging. In any event, it would probably be more costly than present arrangements and would both be beyond our financial resources and produce a divisive effect within the teaching profession in Hong Kong. The solution must, therefore, lie in a more sparing use of our limited number of graduate teachers and a rapid expansion of training facilities for non-graduate teachers.
7. The proposed method would be to utilise trained non-graduate teachers in the planned expansion of the junior secondary forms (that is, Form I-III). While it is not the Government's intention to alter the present arrangements in existing schools, future vacancies in these forms should also be filled by trained non-graduate teachers. If this is done, the needs for graduate and trained non-graduate teachers are as follows:-
Graduate
Non- Graduate
Total
September 1975
620
1,330
1,950
September 1976
650
1,380
2,030
September 1977
720
1,480
2,200
September 1978
760
1,530
2,290
September 1979
790
1,590
2,380
8. The above Table deals separately with graduate and non-graduate teachers. The expected requirement of technical teachers is included in the 'Total' column but has not been analysed since the syllabuses for practical and technical subjects in Forms I to III and for senior technical schools require further consideration. On the other hand, the Table makes due allowance for wastage, whether by reason of death, premature retire-
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