Sessional_Paper_1931 — Page 235

The

Technical School is for Supervisors

not for Journeyman

& Foremen

224

Mr.

might defeat the aim of the Committee. Mr. MacKichan went on to explain that what was required in the Colony, so far as the building trade was concerned, was better artizans and that if an attempt was made to teach potential workers in the building industry science, then they would be educated to a plane above manual labour. This would defeat the purpose of the suggested Technical School. MacKichan can not visualize a King's College or similar boy laying bricks, but he can visualize the same boy going through an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer. He feared that it was impossible to put the two trades on a par. Mr. MacKichan con- sidered that the average youth who entered the building trade was definitely inferior in ability and knowledge to the engineer apprentice whom the Taikoo and Kowloon Docks are trying to encourage. The average youth entering the building industry is poor and has got to earn his living practically from the start. He has little or no learning to begin with and if he is to be retained in the trade he must not be educated above it. What is wanted in fact is craftsmen and any teaching given must be, as far as the building trade is concerned, principally craftsmanship.

95. We considered very carefully Mr. MacKichan's representations but the purpose of the proposed technical school is not to train bricklayers or other journey- man workers but supervisors, such as foremen, clerks of works, managers or master huilders. It is the complete absence of the supervisor class which is today hampering and prejudicing the building trade of the Colony. The purpose of the Technical Bricklayers. School is to provide a curriculum suitable not only for shipbuilding and engineering but also for the constructive trades generally. The wider the purpose of the school, the better. We therefore feel strongly that it would be a mistake to exclude the building trade from the purview of the proposed school. There are obviously openings for supervisors and we should imagine that, if the training which would enable this class to be developed were forthcoming, contractors' sons and others would come for- ward to profit by it. We must again emphasize the fact that unless the workers in any particular industry have had some adequate pre-apprenticeship education they can not be touched by evening classes. The curriculum of an English Junior Technical School giving pre-apprenticeship training in the building industry was merely quoted by way of illustration. As in the case of boys preparing for apprenticeship to the engineering and shipbuilding industry, the course of instruction appropriate to potential fore- men of the building industry would have to contain far more general education and far less technical training than could be attempted in an English Junior Technical School. We have decided to advise therefore that the Technical School which we are advocat- ing should be so designed as to include suitable pre-apprenticeship training for the building industry in the Junior Technical School and for appropriate organized even- ing classes for builders, carpenters, etc., in the Department for the Further and Technical Education of Workers.

Mr. Holmes' systems.

Suggested Curricula.

96. We deal with the needs of the rank and file of the industry in the next section of our Report. We have consulted Mr. Thomas Holmes of the firm of Messrs. Palmer Turner & Co. Mr. Holmes is a practical builder who has himself been con- nected with technical schools in England both as a student and a teacher. He is now employed in this Colony on a big building construction work. He is strongly in favour of practical evening classes being organized for the actual workers in the industry and he has submitted for our information a syllabus which is attached to this Report as Appendix B.

97. We now return to the Technical School. Mr. Upsdell advises that the cur- riculum of the Junior Technical School should consist of:

English :-Reading, writing, short sentences, oral instruction aimed at mak- ing the pupils capable of making themselves understood, technical terms, words and phrases necessary to meet the needs of the particular trade aimed at. Care should be taken to prevent this teaching from becoming literary.

Arithmetic-As far as multiplication and division of fractions.

Drawing:-The use of ordinary instruments, e.g. squares and compasses,

etc.

Mensuration -The use of measures the ability to calculate areas etc.