250
MAURICE FREEDMAN
it seems, a demand for education which, in some places, is not satisfied by the lower grades of schools. I do not propose to discuss the educational problems of the New Territories; I am not competent to do so; but there are some interesting social questions which present attitudes to education suggest. For many New Territories parents the schools are not institutions for producing better-educated versions of themselves; they are avenues of escape from the purely rural way of life—which has lost its charms. Ambition is no longer focused on movement within the traditional range of occupations, and demands are made for people to be fitted for something grander. I came across several families aiming to put their children through university and some who had succeeded in doing so. It would seem that it is not easy for New Territories men and women to gain entrance to the University of Hong Kong and a similar problem of standards prevents universities in the United Kingdom from becoming realistic targets, although British technical and commercial colleges can be aimed at. In consequence, Taiwan and the U.S.A. (where in the one case university education is cheap and accessible to the Chinese-educated and in the other there is a multitude of lesser colleges and universities admitting undergraduates with only moderate qualifications) become attractive. The numbers of New Territories people at universities must of course be tiny, but they are likely to increase, and it remains to be seen whether the trained talent will have been creamed off or whether the new university-educated class will have a role to play in New Territories life. In fact, there is a case to be made for a close study of education at all levels in the New Territories in relation to social mobility. The academic careers of children could be traced through school records and an attempt made to follow them up as they move into their working lives. One side of the interest of such a study would be the light thrown on the degree to which long-established New Territories people are moving out of farming and other ordinary occupations to leave their places to be filled by newcomers,
89. This last point brings me to wider matters touching the 'new' population of the New Territories and its adjustment. Aesthetically (it has often been noted) they have been the ruin of much of the countryside, transforming a delicate landscape into eyesores. (But I have never heard this complaint from New Territories people themselves). Economically the newcomers have been a cause of
250
MAURICE FREEDMAN
it seems, a demand for education which, in some places, is not satisfied by the lower grades of schools. I do not propose to discuss the educational problems of the New Territories; I am not com petent to do so; but there are some interesting social questions which present attitudes to education suggest. For many New Terri- tories parents the schools are not institutions for producing better- educated versions of themselves; they are avenues of escape from the purely rural way of life—which has lost its charms, Ambition is no longer focused on movement within the traditional range of occupations, and demands are made for people to be fitted for something grander. I came across several families aiming to put their children through university and some who had succeeded in doing so. It would seem that it is not easy for New Territories men and women to gain entrance to the University of Hong Kong and a similar problem of standards prevents universities in the United Kingdom from becoming realistic targets, although British technical and commercial colleges can be aimed at. In consequence, Taiwan and the U.S.A. (where in the one case university education is cheap and accessible to the Chinese-educated and in the other there is a multitude of lesser colleges and universities admitting undergradu- ates with only moderate qualifications) become attractive. The numbers of New Territories people at universities must of course be tiny, but they are likely to increase, and it remains to be seen whe- ther the trained talent will have been creamed off or whether the new university-educated class will have a role to play in New Territories life. In fact, there is a case to be made for a close study of education at all levels in the New Territories in relation to social mobility. The academic careers of children could be traced through school records and an attempt made to follow them up as they move into their working lives. One side of the interest of such a study would be the light thrown on the degree to which long- established New Territories people are moving out of farming and other ordinary occupations to leave their places to be filled by
newcomers,
89. This last point brings me to wider matters touching the 'new' population of the New Territories and its adjustment. Aesthetically (it has often been noted) they have been the ruin of much of the countryside, transforming a delicate landscape into eyesores. (But I have never heard this complaint from New Territories people themselves). Economically the newcomers have been a cause of
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