RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 122 TA ACTON conversation F.M.O. officials made it clear that from the beginning they had consciously been combating the pariah status of the Shui-sheung-yan, or "Tanka" as they had been called by ordinary Cantonese. The word “Tanka” is an opprobrious term, with rather ambiguous and shifting ethnic and occupational connotations, like "nigger", or "tinker". The first schools for the children of fishermen were established by the F.M.O. in 1947 and 1948, two in villages on Hong Kong Island, and two in the New Territories. By 1968 there were thirteen primary schools, and one secondary school with a primary department, at Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island. In 1980 this primary department was given a separate school building on the island of Apleichau, which is joined to Aberdeen by a new road bridge. Education in these schools has always been free. During the early years of the scheme ordinary primary education in Hong Kong was neither free, nor sufficient. In 1956, however, the Education Department began to subsidise the F.M.O. schools, and since then there has been general progress towards free compulsory education in Hong Kong. In 1978, the first three years of secondary education were also made free. Where there are no F.M.O. schools, and inadequate Education Department provision also, the F.M.O. sometimes pays the fees of fishermen's children at privately run schools, like the Po Kwong school, which is actually located on a boat in Yaumatei typhoon shelter. The Po Kwong boat school is run by an evangelical Christian group called International Missions Inc. It was known as the “Jesus boat” to boat-people activists struggling for re-housing; although they were working with Roman Catholic social workers, they firmly declined to take me to it. F.M.O. scholarships are also available for higher studies. It is not entirely true that no fishing community children were educated before the F.M.O. schools began. Some parents did send their children to school at great sacrifice to themselves, sometimes to traditional Chinese schools, such as that run in the temple on the island of Kau Sai. This school, however, largely served the Hakka land-based population on the island, and when these Hakka were re-housed on the mainland, it was replaced by an F.M.O. school. Before the Second World War in Canton there were even Trade-Union-run Shui-sheung-yan schools. Conditions were, perhaps, however, more difficult for the sea-going fishermen's children of Hong Kong, away for days at a time from all land contact on occasion, than for the riverine salt-traders and transporters of Canton. Before mechanisation very few fishing parents could afford much by the way of school fees. Without the F.M.O. schools it is unlikely that the revolution in literacy would have 10 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 11 Queen's College (then in Hollywood Road), the Government secondary school which is still situated on Hong Kong Island. In 1913, the Technical Institute entered [6] candidates for local examinations of whom 116 passed. Subjects included shorthand, sanitation, building construction and field surveying. The development of technical education was slow. However, in 1926 the Salesian Fathers commenced classes in shoemaking, carpentry, tailoring, and printing; at about the same time, Taikoo Dockyard, situated at Quarry Bay, opened evening classes for their apprentices. In 1903, a positive step was taken by the Government towards the development of technical education when a committee was formed to report on the possibility of introducing a system of practical education. This Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir William Hornell, made three main recommendations. These were the establishment of a junior technical school; the provision of evening classes for apprentices; and the commencement of full-time courses at a later date. As a result, in 1932 the Junior Technical School was established, which was Government's first venture into full-time technical education. This secondary school provided a comparatively narrow four-year course designed mainly as pre-apprentice training for the engineering trades. In 1957, 'JTS', as it was usually known, moved from its accommodation in Queen's Road East (from 1974 to the time of writing this has been occupied by the Technical Teachers College) to the three-storey building in Wood Road vacated by the then Technical College. At the same time, the name (JTS) was changed to Victoria Technical School (VTS), and a phased conversion from a trade to a secondary school, albeit with some emphasis on non-vocational technical subjects, took place. Further progress was made in 1935 when the Catholic Salesian Society founded the Aberdeen Trade School. This provided a general education, together with training considered comparable to an apprenticeship within an institution. The School was converted into a secondary technical school in the late 1950s. The author first visited this establishment in January 1955 and recalls the high standard of projects on display. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q Meanwhile the Far East Flying Training School (the original name) commenced training pilots and engineers for civil aviation in 1934.10 The Far East Flying and Technical School Limited, as it was later named, was a private institution. It closed in 1983. The first Government post-secondary technical institution was the Trade School which opened in Wood Road, on Hong Kong Island, in 1937, on a site adjacent to that on which Morrison Hill Technical Institute now stands. At the time of opening, under Principal George White, it ran courses in building, mechanical engineering, and marine-wireless operating. The college also took over the evening practice courses previously run by Taikoo Dockyard. The new, then two-storey (an additional floor was completed in 1953), Trade School building in Wanchai, was well constructed and was one of the few examples of good face-brick-work in the Colony. (It was demolished in 1988, seven years after becoming an annexe of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute.)* Thus, when the Pacific War broke out in 1941, technical education was being provided at secondary, trade-school, and post-secondary levels, but not on a large scale. For example, there were about 200 full-time students attending post-secondary courses at the Trade School. This did not receive a great deal of support from employers except from the dockyards and the members of the Building Contractors' Association. During the Japanese occupation (December 1941 to August 1945) oral history has it that the equipment was moved away and the Trade School building was used for a period as an opium factory. In 1947, after World War II the Trade School (renamed Technical College in 1947), the Junior Technical School, the Aberdeen Trade School, and a number of centres running evening classes in technical subjects, reopened and were soon working at pre-war capacity. To this group was added the Tang King-po Secondary School, in Kowloon, in 1953. For many years this had a trade school section which organised classes in printing, shoemaking and tailoring.11 This section was phased out in the late 1970s. *Please see Plate 1. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 15 NOTES The Author is grateful to the Reverend Carl T. Smith for providing material about vocational training in early Hong Kong, and to Mr. C.L. Ko and Mr. M.H. So for the photograph. T.F. Ryan, 'The Story of a Hundred Years: The PIME in Hong Kong, 1858-1958', Catholic Trust Society, Hong Kong, 1959. Hong Kong Daily Press, 20 July 1876; and Hong Kong Catholic Register, Vol. II, No. 39, 29 June 1879; and South China Morning Post, 16 November 1936. Hong Kong Telegraph, 30 January 1905; and Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 September 1901; and Daily Press, 25 January 1906; and Hong Kong Telegraph, 17 June 1914. T.C. Cheng, "The Education of Overseas Chinese: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, Singapore and the East Indies' (University of London MA thesis, 1949), p. 141; and Hong Kong Telegraph, prospectus of evening courses to be held at Queen's College. *Imperial Education Conference Papers, Education Systems of the Chief Colonies not possessing responsible Governments' (Hong Kong, 1914), p. 5. 4 Ibid, pp. 27 and 28. 7 Watt Hoi-kee, "Technical Education in Hong Kong Today", Appendix I (undated), p. 26 (c. 1964). # 'Opening Ceremony New Technical College' (booklet), (2 December 1957), p. 3. *Aberdeen Technical School 1935-1965, 30th Anniversary Souvenir Number'. C 'Far East Flying and Technical School Ltd' (prospectus) (undated). Monica Yeung, 'Air-minded men who never get off the ground', Hong Kong Standard (15 September 1974) p. 19. 12 'Hong Kong Technical College 1970-71', prospectus p. 1. 11 Information given verbally by pre-war Trade School student. TH 'Tang King-po School Speech Day and Prize-giving' (brochure) (19 November 1976). 15 'Technical Education Investigating Committee, Report on Technical Education and Vocational Training in Hong Kong' (30 October 1953). 'Opening Ceremony of the Polytechnic's First New Building' (brochure) (26 October 1976), p. 1. 17 TH 19 'Opening Ceremony of the New Technical College' (2 December 1957), last page. *Report on the Cost Study of the Hong Kong Technical College' (December 1968). *'Opening Ceremony of the Polytechnic's First New Building', loc. cit. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 214 A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong School (VTS), that a new curriculum was phased in. It changed from being a trade school and became a secondary technical school. Meanwhile the Far East Flying Training School -- the original name -- commenced training pilots and engineers for the civil aviation industry in 1934. The Far East Flying and Technical School Limited, as it was later renamed, sited at Kai Tak, was a private institution. It shut its doors in 1983 because of the rapid expansion of government-sponsored technical education. Meanwhile, retracing our steps, further progress in the field of technical education was made pre-World War Two when, in 1935, the Salesian Society founded the Aberdeen Trade School. This provided a sound general education, together with training considered to be comparable to an apprenticeship. Like the JTS, this School too was converted into a secondary technical school in the late 1950s. I recall visiting the Aberdeen Trade School on its open day, in January 1955, when I was struck by the high standard of craftsmanship of the students' work on display. The first Government post-secondary technical institution was the old Trade School which opened in Wood Road, Wan Chai (using the old spelling), in 1937. It stood on the corner where the Vocational Training Council's multi-storey office block stands today. At the time of opening, under Principal George White, it ran courses in building, mechanical engineering (with a bias towards automobile engineering) and marine wireless operating. The Trade School also took over the evening classes previously run by Taikoo Dockyard at Quarry Bay. The new, then two-storey (an additional floor was added in 1953) Trade School was well constructed on the lines of other colonial-style buildings erected between the two World Wars. It had high ceilings with paddle-fans because there was virtually no air-conditioning in Hong Kong at that time (an exception was the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank). The Trade School was one of the few examples of good face brickwork. In the 1950s navigation, commerce and textile ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 215 A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong departments were added. The building was demolished in 1988, seven years after it had become an annexe of the Morrison Hill Technical Institute. There are antiquarians in Hong Kong today who feel the building should have been preserved. But, retracing our steps, when the Pacific War broke out in 1941, technical education was being provided in Hong Kong at secondary, trade school and post-secondary levels, but on a limited scale. There were about 200 full-time students attending post-secondary courses at the Trade School, in Wood Road, although the School did not receive a great deal of support from employers, except from the dockyards and members of the then named Building Contractors' Association (now the Hong Kong Construction Association). The latter even erected the Trade School at cost price under the supervision of Mr. Tam Shui Hong, an affable, elderly gentleman I recall. In addition, generous building contractors would sometimes donate a load of bricks or sand for use in practical classes. Post-Second World War In 1947, after World War Two was over, the Trade School (in that year renamed Technical College), the Junior Technical School, the Aberdeen Trade School and a number of centres running evening classes in technical subjects reopened. They were soon operating at pre-war capacity. To this group were added, in 1953, the Ho Tung Technical School for Girls in Causeway Bay, and Tang King Po Secondary School in Kowloon. For many years the latter also had a trade school section which ran classes in printing, shoemaking and tailoring. This Section was closed in the late 1970s after more Government technical institutes and pre-vocational schools were up and running. My early memories of the old Technical College, in Wood Road Wan Chai in the mid 1950s, are crystal clear: like the views at that time from Hong Kong Island during the winter months over to Kowloon and above and beyond Page 255 Page 256 ================================================================================