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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 219 A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong Five. But for some part-time technician courses completion of Form Four was acceptable. The College also ran a limited number of post-Higher Diploma endorsement courses rated at technologist level. Some led to membership of British professional institutions. Believing that 'local ginger is not hot' a large number of our students, on graduating, left for Canada or Britain. In latter cases we frequently arranged for them to take up employment and to study on a day-release basis overseas. Our students acquitted themselves splendidly. We took pride in the fact that they were not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get their hands soiled. The old Technical College was very much 'all things to all men' in the 1960s. It even ran a limited number of craft and pre-apprenticeship courses. A few of the students attending had only completed Form One or Form Two because nine years of universal, compulsory, free education had not been introduced. This was phased in between 1978 and 1981. In fact the impetus for the introduction of this general education milestone came largely from Britain. Much rapid development took place under S J G Burt (nicknamed "The Bull" in Cantonese) who joined the Wan Chai Trade School in 1938. He became Principal of the then fairly recently renamed Technical College in 1951 and served until 1963 when he joined the World Bank as an advisor on technical education. As elsewhere, technical education depended very much on personalities and Sidney Burt, although not always popular, has often been regarded, deservedly, as the 'grandfather' of technical education. Instead of a briefcase he carried a Hong Kong rattan basket and wore a Saigon linen, wet-wash suit, both carry-overs from an earlier era. In addition to driving us, his staff, he also drove himself. Without work he was like a bear with a sore ear. Every morning he was reputed to wake up and say to himself, 'Thank God for technical education'. ================================================================================