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during or after the probationary period, a lady teacher is required by her contract to resign on marriage, thereby terminating her appointment. Provi- sion is made in the terms of contract that if this resignation falls within the three year's probationary period, the lady teacher is required to refund the whole of her passage money from England to Hong Kong. From the evidence before them the Commissioners gather that this proviso has of late years only been partially or not at all enforced. They would recommend however that in consideration not only of the loss of the refund of passage money, but of all the other expenses borne by the Government in

for passages freshly appointed candidates, additional payment of medical fees, travelling expenses of candidates in England, and Crown Agents departmental charges, this provision should in future be rigidly enforced and that the whole of the passage money should be refunded by any officer resigning before the completion of the three years' probationary period.

APPOINTMENTS TO HEADSHIPS AND SENIOR POSTS.

28. The Commissioners are of the opinion that the officers appointed to the Head- ships of those Government schools which provide secondary education should be graduates, chosen for their high qualifications and for ability, instead of solely on account of seniority. Merit should replace length of service as the criterion for promotion, and the qualifications of the officer appointed should be appropriate to secondary educa- tion. The Commissioners also consider that the special salaried posts of Senior Masters and Senior Mistresses should be filled by appointment according to qualifications and merit, not according to seniority only. They deprecate, as being calculated in certain circumstances to lead to a lack of efficiency and consequently to a position the reverse of economic,--an arrangement by which these posts may be allotted to unqualified officers because of their length of service. For example, the senior mistress of Central British School should be specially appointed on merit to that position, as she has under her control and supervision girls receiving a secondary education. Moreover these four Senior posts should only be filled if there are mistresses qualified and capable of filling them. The Commissioners desire especially to impress upon the Government this recommenda- tion. The principle of selecting and earmarking a nucleus of officers for higher adminis- trative command is just as important in the Education Department, as it is in other Government departments and other walks of life.

TRAINING OF TEACHERS.

29. The Retrenchment Commission in its terms of reference was advised by His Excellency the Governor to explore any means by which those Government officials who are recruited from England, paid on a sterling basis, eligible for leave and passages, and pensionable on retirement, could be satisfactorily replaced by Chinese. It is the consider- ed opinion of the Commissioners that a very considerable portion of the work now under- taken by highly paid European officers could be done by Chinese; but, and here is the important qualification, the transition cannot be immediate, as the training at present offered to Chinese is not altogether satisfactory. The principle methods of training are :-

(a) A course at the Technical Institute.

(b) A course of training at the University under the agis of a Professor of Education and an Educational officer who performs the part-time duties of a Master of Method, and

(c) A course at the Vernacular Normal Schools.

(a) At the Technical Institute night classes are held in a number of subjects. The instructors are in most cases those members of the Education Department who are willing to accept the remuneration of $5 per hour. Into these classes are admitted, regardless of previous education, students at all stages of learning and with widely differing know- ledge of English They are taught together and left to imbibe what they can of the teacher's wisdom. Examinations at the end of the course qualify the student for a Technical Institute Certificate. This method of training is neither thorough nor valuable. In particular it fails to provide any system for the practice of teaching under guidance. The majority of students are at work during the day, and during the course are not graded according to their knowledge of English.

(b) The course of training at the University is for four years, and the method of recruitment of Chinese University graduate masters for Government schools under this